RE: Whole and Parts
Dear John,
I know you know the difference, so I expect it was a slip of the pen,
however, whole-part is NOT well modelled by class-member because
whole-part is transitive, whilst class-member is not. On the other
hand superclass-subclass is transitive, and is possibly what you meant.
Regards
Matthew West
Reference Data Architecture and Standards Manager
Shell International Petroleum Company Limited
Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 20 7934 4490 Mobile: +44 7796 336538
Email: matthew.west@shell.com
Internet: http://www.shell.com
http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-standard-upper-ontology@ieee.org
> [mailto:owner-standard-upper-ontology@ieee.org]On Behalf Of
> John F. Sowa
> Sent: 10 July 2005 22:02
> To: John F. Sowa
> Cc: Michel Eytan; Jay Halcomb; Avril Styrman;
> standard-upper-ontology@listserv.ieee.org; cg@CS.UAH.EDU;
> alexander.heussner@gmx.net; aapo.halko@helsinki.fi
> Subject: Whole and Parts
>
>
> The thread on mereology and set theory started
> from Avril's note and her comments that the
> member-of relation in set theory is useful
> for modeling part-whole relations.
>
> In an offline note, Gary Richmond mentioned
> Peirce's discussion of the various kinds of
> part-whole relations. I decided to put that
> selection on my web site, since it is a very
> good reminder that there is a lot more to
> the part-whole relation than just what could
> be modeled by the member-of relation:
>
> http://www.jfsowa.com/peirce/whole.htm
> Whole and Parts
>
> A serious limitation of both set theory and most
> versions of mereology is that they are purely
> extensional theories: two sets are considered
> identical if and only if they have exactly the
> same members. But many of the kinds of part-
> whole relations that Peirce (and others) address
> depend on modal or intentional relationships.
>
> Note that Peirce introduces semiotic issues,
> because some of his kinds of part-whole relations
> are defined in terms of signs. That is one way
> of handling modal and intentional issues.
>
> John Sowa
>
>