Re: skos:Concept and "real world things"

Hi Francois-Paul:

I'm a lurker on the skos list and a more regular participant on the 
ontolog forum where we discuss this issue quite regularly.

François-Paul Servant wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> In the "Linked Data" community, people give URIs to "real world things", 
> such as animals, cities or persons.
> 
> In SKOS, we define and give URIs to concepts, "ideas or meanings that 
> are unit of thoughts..."
> 
> It seems obvious that there is a deep (and possibly complex relation) 
> between skos:Concept(s) and "real world (physical) things" (I would even 
> say that, except maybe in very particular domains such as mathematics, 
> there is no way to define a concept without relating it to "real world 
> things").
> 
> 
> 5) any better idea ?

The short answer is yes, semiosis and pragmaticism. The RDF semantics 
document is clear that it provides only a mechanical representation of 
meaning, or truth mapping to the world called an interpretation. In 
order to establish the kind of meaning you're looking for, you need to 
extend the skos vocabulary to include both representation and 
interpretation. Here's a a pointer to the ongoing discussion ...

http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/2008-05/msg00120.html

I think you'll enjoy following this thread. In support of what is 
referred to in the discussion as a relational theory of meaning, I make 
available under a creating commons "by license" an OWL ontology based on 
Charles Sander's Peirce's "On a New List of Categories" which is 
grounded in Peirce's early semiotics.

You can find that here ...

http://www.rickmurphy.org/categories.owl

Swoop and Pellet are the reference implementation. One you load the 
ontology, turn on Pellet and you'll see the list classify as categories. 
Of course there's much work to do, but I am happy to share with the skos 
community.

> Best Regards,
> 
> François-Paul Servant
> 
> [1] http://www.w3.org/2006/07/SWD/wiki/SkosDesign/ConceptSemantics
> [2] http://moat-project.org/
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 


-- 
Thanks Rick,
blog http://phaneron.rickmurphy.org
web  http://www.rickmurphy.org
cell 703-201-9129

Received on Tuesday, 13 May 2008 13:50:56 UTC