SUO: Re: [KIF] CL Motivators and the IFF-MT
On Tue, Jul 09, 2002 at 10:00:51AM -0700, Robert E. Kent wrote:
> In a recent message Chris Menzel gave reasons (motivations) for the
> elimination in CL of the distinction between predicates and individuals.
Just to clarify, the distinction that was eliminated was a *syntactic*
one, viz., the distinction between predicate SYMBOLS and individual
CONSTANTS. Conceptually, we still distinguish between RELATIONS and
ordinary INDIVIDUALS like people, automobiles, electrons, etc. This is
currently reflected in the model theory for CL, in which the domain is
partitioned into two classes R and A corresponding to the conceptual
distinction above.
Now, as it happens, the way the model theory works, this distinction
between R and A makes no formal difference at all, and so it too may
well get clobbered in the model theory. But even then, it would be
wrong to conclude that CL entails that the conceptual distinction in
question is bogus. It is only that, conceptually and metaphysically
significant though it may be, it does no *formal* work in CL and hence
is not explicitly represented. But we do know the difference between,
say, being famous and Yo-Yo Ma's cello. :-) (Actually, I'm not at all
sure that Pat knows the difference, judging from a few past messages...)
-chris
--
/\ ASCII ribbon | Chris Menzel -- http://philebus.tamu.edu/~cmenzel
\/ campaign | Philosophy Dept, Texas A&M University
/\ against | College Station, TX 77843-4237
/ \ HTML email | voice: 979.845-5660 fax: 979.845.0458