Re: SUO: Universal Time, other universals, and cultural context
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>
> >My deep conviction - and I hope it's shared by many people in this forum -
> >is that any ontology is deeply rooted in a language and
> >cultural context, and cannot be easily exported to other contexts.
>
> My deep conviction is exactly the opposite. If the SUO reflects any
> linguistic bias then it will be the less useful for it, which is one
> reason why NL intuitions should be avoided, or at any rate treated
> skeptically.
I'm not sure which side my deepest convictions lie.
I think an ontology is not the same as a world view.
a world view is deeply rooted in a language and cultural context.
an ontology is a set of propositions.
a proposition may have language and cultural context embedded in it.
Consider a proposition stated by someone from a fatalistic, deterministic
culture.
Consider a proposition stated by a rigorously informal 'mystical' culture
that believes all experience is wheels within wheels/dynamically redefined.
I expect these two propositions would have a different 'meaning', even if
they both purport to describe the same 'event' at some 4-D location.
David