Re: SUO: OpenCyc Motion Open for Discussions
Hi Randall,
On Sat, 12 Apr 2003, Randall R Schulz wrote:
> >If one wants to ascertain the semantics of any given constant, however,
> >one looks at the #$comment (often quite extensive for core constants), and
> >the rules asserted on it. And also *uses* it, and sees what it can do.
>
> I'm afraid I don't accept ad hoc English descriptions as formal
> semantic (proof-theoretic or model-theoretic, say) specifications.
>
> Empiricism is a completely backward way to define a constructed formal
> system. That we do so as much as we do is a major contributor to the
> fragility, unreliability and unpredictability of current computing systems.
>
> As I said before, saying "what Cyc does with it" doesn't cut it as an
> IEEE specification for an ontology or an ontology specification language.
To my mind, this dismissive remark begs a number of rather interesting
philosophical questions about the nature and location of the
methodological borderline between logic (which is a purely formal
inquiry) and metaphysics (whose methodology has received a wide range of
approaches from purely formalist, to 'intuitionist' to robustly
empiricist, and about which there has been a somewhat infamous amount of
fighting by philosophers).
I can't pretend to have the certainty you appear to display on this
matter, Randall, but I have had cause to observe in my line of work that
ontologies which are generated a priori can be extremely useless, and it
is in putting an ontology to work in particular applications that one
often finally gets clear about where to draw the right distinctions. (For
example - what exactly is an "action"? One might think obviously it
should be defined as a specialization of "animal activity"...but then one
might start representing software agents and realize that a broader
definition is required...Now, what is a 'purposeful action'? How are
numbers to be represented? What about 'scientific numbers' (e.g. 5.6 x
10^3)? Is that the same as 5 600? But then isn't it also the same as 5
601 given the conventions about degree of accuracy? How is one to
represent information?....and so on)
Cheers,
Cathy.
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Cathy Legg, Phd Cycorp, Inc.
Ontologist 3721 Executive Center Dr., ste 100
www.cyc.com Austin, TX 78731-1615
download OpenCyc at http://www.opencyc.org
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