Re: Uniform access to descriptions

On Apr 13, 2008, at 6:53 PM, Xiaoshu Wang wrote:
>  I failed to follow what is the difference between /representation/  
> vs. /description/

You can make a distinction between them like this:

Think about describing. When you describe something to someone you  
say some things - you make some assertions about the thing. Suppose  
you ask someone to describe what Alan looks like. You could say "he  
has (some) brown hair". "he has a beard". Even if the person was  
talented and able to draw Alan, they would say, when describing Alan:  
"He looks like this" (pointing at the picture).

On the other hand, think of the goal of representation as re- 
presentation. A representation of Alan might be a drawing or a  
picture, i.e. it may not necessarily be a set of assertions. On the  
other hand, some descriptions can be used as representations (have to  
think about whether *all* descriptions are representations). In any  
case, not all representations are descriptions, since not all  
representations are in the form of assertions.

-Alan