RE: PDF file conundrum / A way to think about IRs

At 1:06 PM +0000 6/23/08, Booth, David (HP Software - Boston) wrote:
>  > From: Pat Hayes [mailto:phayes@ihmc.us]
>>
>>  >      From: David Booth
>>  >      ....
>>  >      Now, for a given entity, let's suppose we have decided
>>  >      how we choose to think of it and consider the three possibilities:
>>  >
>>  >      1. the entity does not have the characteristics of an
>>  >      IR.  It is lacking at least one characteristic of an IR.
>>  >
>>  >      2. the entity has all of the characteristics of an IR,
>>  >      but it also has other characteristics.
>>  >
>>  >      3. the entity has exactly the characteristics of an IR
>>  >      and no more.
>>
>>
>>  I don't think this makes sense. Nothing, except a
>>  mathematical abstraction defined by axioms (group,
>>  commutative algebra, set, etc.) has some exact list of
>>  characteristics and no others at all.
>
>It *would* be a mathematical abstraction in that case.  Why do you
>say it doesn't make sense for it to be a mathematical abstraction?

Oh, well thats OK then. I guess I was assuming that IRs were intended 
to be actual things in the world.

Pat

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Received on Monday, 23 June 2008 14:23:27 UTC