Re: Refers Or Denotes?

Traditionally, reference is understood as the relation between a name and  
a referent while denotation is used for the objects that satisfy a concept  
(Frege's Wertverlauf, corresponding to "extensions", though this term  
itself has a long history!).

The distinction is made very clear in Russell's philosophy especially  
against Meinong and his theory that whatever you point at (typically with  
a name) is an object, whether existent, non-existent, impossible, etc.

Cheers,
A.

Le Tue, 12 Feb 2013 21:58:03 +0100, Henry Story <henry.story@bblfish.net>  
a écrit:

> A question that came up on the WebID mailing list. We'd just like some 
> clarification
> for the use of denotes, as the issue has come up there.
>
> On 11 Feb 2013, at 21:37, Kingsley Idehen <kidehen@openlinksw.com> wrote:
>
>> Henry / Andrei,
>>
>> I current see [ in 
>> https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/WebID/raw-file/tip/spec/identity-respec.html ]
>> "A WebID is an HTTP URI which *refers* to an Agent (Person, 
>> Organization, Group, Device, etc.)."
>>
>> But in the context of RDF based Linked Data, the RDF workgroup (after 
>> serious thought on this matter) [1] has opted to use what would equate 
>> to:
>>
>> A WebID is an HTTP URI which *denotes* an Agent (Person, Organization, 
>> Group, Device, etc.).
>>
>> The more we stick to definitions and terminology being used acrossother  
>> W3C groups the easier things will be (on the appreciation andadoption  
>> front) for WebID, over the long haul.
>
>>
>> Links:
>>
>> 1. 
>> http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-rdf11-concepts-20130115/#resources-and-statements 
>> .
>> 2. http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-rdf11-concepts-20130115/ -- latest RDF 
>> 1.1 Concepts and Abstract Syntax edition .
>
> I am not sure why "denotes" is being taken up by the RDF group nowadays, 
> when most philosophy books and logic books tend to use the word "refer". 
> Most engineers use the word refer too on a daily basis.
>
> In fact it is quite clear from the RDF concepts text that the two words 
> are near synonymous, since what an IRI denotes is called its referent:
>
> [[
> Any IRI or literal denotes some thing in the universe of discourse.These  
> things are called resources. Anything can be a resource, including 
> physical things, documents, abstract concepts, numbers and strings; the 
> term is synonymous with “entity”. The resource denoted by an IRI is 
> called its referent,
> ]]
>
> I am ok with denotes. But we can also use referent according to that 
> text. So I don't think this is a very settled matter - given furthermore 
> that the above is not yet a final spec.
>
> I would like to know why this decision is being made though. Is thatjust  
> an aesthetic statement, or is there more behind it?
>
> Henry
>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Kingsley IdehenFounder & CEO
>> OpenLink Software
>> Company Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
>> Personal Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen
>> Twitter/Identi.ca handle: @kidehen
>> Google+ Profile: https://plus.google.com/112399767740508618350/about
>> LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kidehen
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> Social Web Architect
> http://bblfish.net/
>


-- 

Responsable Recherche Web et Métadonnées à l'Institut de Recherche et  
d'Innovation du Centre Pompidou (IRI)
Doctorant en philosophie à Paris 1 (PHICO, EXeCO)
Collaborateur extérieur chez Inria - Projet DBpedia Francophone et  
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