putting a definition in its place

Since human beings have built-in "hardware" for 
recognizing similarities and differences between
objects, they often form concepts on an ad-hoc
basis, without using a formal definition.

Even though a definition may be omitted, or may
the last step of concept formation, it is very
important.  A definition is a fundamental
(abstract) property of a concept, on a par with
other properties such as attributes, actions and
relations.

Therefore, I have redefined the "tabula rasa" view
of the entity-characteristic-proposition hierarchy
as follows.

existent
/  entity
/  characteristic
//    definition
//    part
//    attribute
//    relation
//    action
//    interaction
/  proposition

Dick McCullough
knowledge := man do identify od existent done;
knowledge haspart proposition list;
http://rhm.cdepot.net/