ONT Re: Program Semantics -- Lexica, Logics, Ontologies, Semiotica, Syn-Taxonomies

[Jon Awbrey <jawbrey@oakland.edu>]

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DS = David Sallach
JS = John Sowa

JS: The preface of the best available book
    on knowledge representation discusses
    the following 3-way subdivision:

JS: Knowledge representation is a multidisciplinary subject that
    applies theories and techniques from three other fields:

JS: 1. Logic provides the formal structure and rules of inference.

JS: 2. Ontology defines the kinds of things that exist in the application domain.

JS: 3. Computation supports the applications that distinguish knowledge representation
       from pure philosophy.

DS: I hope it will not be disruptive for a long-time lurker to ask a question.
    Are 1) logic and 2) ontology as separable as the above subdivision suggests?
    That is, while I agree that formal structure and rules of inference are highly
    desirable, it is less clear that logic itself has reached a final, stable form.
    Rather, while better defined than ontology, logic may still be evolving as well
    and, in fact, may coevolve with putative ontologies, in which case, the initial
    subdivision may be misleading.

DS: The particular initiative I have in mind is situation theory (and related frameworks
    such as relevance logic and dynamic logic).  Because natural language is one of the
    primary domains of situation theory, it addresses many of the issues discusssed in
    the Program Semantics thread.  However, it also attempts to extend predicate calculus
    by adding existential as well as syntactic assertions and constraints.  We cannot yet
    know the ultimate contributions of these movements, but is it not possible that some
    vexing problems may be addressed most effectively by the emergence of novel ontologies
    combined with innovative formalisms?

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Hi David,

I believe that some aspects of situation theory will be covered by the IFF approach,
about which I'm sure you will hear more anon among the SUO e-missals.  As far as the
general recognition of situated attitudes in logic and semiotic goes, C.S. Peirce,
of course, got there long ago.  And although the S&A floks have made some valiant
attempts to break out of the pre-veiling Fregean mold, they might have purchased
their fungicide wholesale if only they had made slightly more thorough inquiries
at Peirce's Emporium.

Incidentally, if Semantic Web folks would like to see the state of the art
that computational semantics had achieved by the middle of the Disco Era,
they might take a look at the thread that I initially threaded under the
heading of "Program Semantics", or better yet, check out the book and
its sequels.

Welcome to the program of disruption already in progress ...

Jon Awbrey

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Program Semantics

01.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03884.html
02.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03885.html
03.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03886.html
04.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03887.html
05.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03890.html
06.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03895.html
07.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03896.html
08.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03898.html
09.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03904.html
10.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03905.html
11.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03906.html
12.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03909.html
13.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03910.html
14.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03911.html
15.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03912.html
16.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03915.html
17.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03919.html
18.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03926.html
19.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03927.html
20.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03929.html
21.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03930.html
22.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03932.html
23.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03933.html
24.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03934.html
25.  http://suo.ieee.org/ontology/msg03935.html

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