RE: 'all resources' is not a set

-----Original Message-----
From: pat hayes [mailto:phayes@ihmc.us]
Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 7:31 PM
To: Larry Masinter
Cc: public-sw-meaning@w3.org
Subject: Re: 'all resources' is not a set



>> Is the referent of
>> 'the morning star' and of 'the evening star' the same?
>> Not defined.

> You chose a very bad example to make your case. The whole point of 
> the example is that it IS well-defined: the answer is yes, they do 
> have the same referent, viz. the planet Venus (but some people don't 
> know that, hence the point of the example.)

I may be a little unclear on how 'referent' is being used. If the term
infers 'the actual object', as in Venus, I guess it's pretty clear. Perhaps
a better example of what confuses me is my congressman. My intent is to
assert something about the representative like "he is accountable for X", by
virtue of his role as a representative. In this case I don't care that at
the moment my congressman is John Smith, since next year my congressman may
be Jane Doe. But my assertion still stands. Is this notion of role different
from the Venus example?


James Lynn
Strategic Coordination - Enterprise Standards
HP Software Services
610 595 4995