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Re: [ontolog-forum] [ontology-summit] Estimating number of all known fac

To: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "[ontolog-summit]" <ontology-summit@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: matthew lange <mclange@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 24 May 2012 11:27:24 -0700
Message-id: <CAKJtitsz53mPSaKAUEYPY_2FPivkW8eTuBi8FJ9tQ00EYF6aeg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
I am really feeling like my thread has been hijacked by people who like to read their own writing:> conjecture. I have purposefully avoided quoting any one person--but you know who you are.

Perhaps folks are afraid to read/respond to my real-world examples of facts, or did my propositions just get lost in the list mud?

Here again are some examples of facts, I would be delighted if someone would attempt to bound factual knowledge so that they could be quantified--or otherwise provide succinct reasons about why my examples are not facts.
Fact examples:
  1. The earth revolves around the sun.
  2. The Greek letter Pi represents the irrational number that is the ratio between a circle's circumference and diameter.
  3. A calorie is the amount of energy it takes to raise the  temperature of 1cc of water 1 deg. C at sea level.
  4. Chemical X contains Y calories of available energy. (of course substituting where appropriate)
Are these not facts? Are they not countable?
Again, aside from bending the space-time continuum, or  dismissing laws of nature like thermodynamics...I fail to see the need for relativism here...or, what am I missing? If you agree that these are facts, then let's get pragmatic and enumerate the properties/boundaries around the nature of a fact.

Also, I must express my displeasure with several members' netiquette on this list:
1) In addition to Mr. West, my name is also Matthew  (this is a FACT)--please use unambiguous identifiers in responses
2) Spell Check is courteous--not a fact, but perhaps an opinion shared by many--one or two misspelled words words I can understand...but some of these posts are ridiculous.

Best,

~mc




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