- From: Miles Sabin <MSabin@interx.com>
- Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2001 17:58:17 -0000
- To: www-rdf-logic@w3.org
Sandro Hawke wrote, > One nit, in the name of clarity here: you only need pairs for > directed graphs (DGs). Triples give us directed labeled graphs > (DLGs). > > I think you can represent a DLG with a DG, so maybe it doesn't > matter. Indeed you can. > But it does raise the question: we're using n-tuples to > represent information. Is there any clear reason to use n=3 as > our fundamental structuring? I think it's more conventient > than n=2 and makes self-reference easier than n=anything (which > most logics seem to use). But is there a solid theory behind > that? Given that arbitrary n-tuples are reducible to pairs I don't really see how there could be. Scholars of ancient and medieval logics will be very familiar with the idea of taking subject-predicate-object as a fundamental form ... some people used to have quite spooky ideas about the significance of the number three in those days too. Whether it's really appropriate to take SPO as foundational for a post-Frege, 21st century enterprise, is another question ;-) Cheers, Miles -- Miles Sabin InterX Internet Systems Architect 5/6 Glenthorne Mews +44 (0)20 8817 4030 London, W6 0LJ, England msabin@interx.com http://www.interx.com/
Received on Saturday, 3 February 2001 12:58:56 UTC