Ontology of Rough Sets

On 1/13/11 8:36 AM, John F. Sowa wrote:
> Folks,

John,

Great comments. I've cc'd in the LOD community mailing list as these 
sentiments have some bearing on an ongoing conversation thread [1].

Links:

1. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lod/2011Jan/


Others: please read on....
> We have to make a clear distinction between ontology and the tools,
> languages, logics, and reasoning methods used with any ontology.
> The subject line of this thread could be very misleading.
>
> Ever since Aristotle, categories and hierarchies of categories
> have been useful for ontology -- primarily because the study
> of existence leads to a study of what kinds of things exist.
>
> A's syllogisms and his method of definition by genus and
> differentiae have also been useful.  But many people (starting
> with Aristotle himself) have noted that prototypes rather
> than strict definitions are better for some applications.
>
> In general, there is *no* specific logic or reasoning method
> that is either essential or irrelevant to ontology.  The
> choice depends entirely on specific applications -- or even
> on very narrow questions or problems about an application.
>
> Re rough sets:  This is an important topic, but I would be
> very cautious about any way of thinking that combines the
> word 'ontology' with any particular reasoning method.
>
> That is in fact why I have been unhappy with the phrase
> "Web Ontology Language" used as a scrambled acronym for OWL.
> It suggests to many novices, that the word 'the' belongs in
> front of that phrase -- but that idea is hopelessly misguided.
>
> Ontology is *orthogonal* to any and all versions of logic,
> reasoning methods, and implementation tools.  Any specific
> language or tool tends to channel thinking into certain paths
> that may be useful for some applications.  But ways of thinking
> that are specialized for one kind of application can often be
> inappropriate or even misguided for other applications.
>
> John
>
>
>
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-- 

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Kingsley Idehen	
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OpenLink Software
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Received on Thursday, 13 January 2011 18:53:47 UTC