- From: Pat Hayes <phayes@ihmc.us>
- Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:21:58 -0500
- To: Phillip Lord <phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk>
- Cc: Oliver Ruebenacker <curoli@gmail.com>, Mark Wilkinson <markw@illuminae.com>, W3C HCLSIG hcls <public-semweb-lifesci@w3.org>
On Mar 26, 2009, at 10:45 AM, Phillip Lord wrote: > > Pat Hayes <phayes@ihmc.us> writes: >>> Besides which, the issue being discussed here is one of equality. >>> When >>> are two proteins the same protein? >> >> TWO proteins are never the same protein. Two mangelwurzels are >> never the same >> mangelwurzel, either. What 'same' means, is that there is ONE >> thing with two >> names. Being the same as is never a relationship between two >> different >> things. > > > This is obvious; the question is about types of proteins. A statement > like: "every protein molecule in the world is different from every > other > protein molecule" is true, but more or less totally useless. I agree, but I have no idea why you keep harping on about molecules. I didn't mention molecules. > > We are talking about proteins not protein molecules Indeed, we are. Glad we have that clear. > ; if I give you a > solution of protein molecules, all the same, and you split it into two > halves, do you now suddenly have two proteins? No, of course not. You have two pieces of the same material. (This is all very standard ontological stuff, by the way: mereology 101) > > Protein is a mass term. You would agree that two glasses of water both > hold the same substance; just so for protein. Quite. > The question is, then, > when are two samples of protein, samples of the same protein. I don't know the answer to that (not being a chemist) but I do know what it *means to say* they are the same protein, which is all we need for writing ontologies. > A > secondary question is, how do we represent this computationally. You could use, for example, owl:sameAs. Provided of course that 'proteins' were in your ontology. I fail to see what you see as being any problem here. These 'issues' about mass terms were all fully worked out decades ago. Pat > > We are going around in circles here; I think that I have said enough. > > Phil > > ------------------------------------------------------------ IHMC (850)434 8903 or (650)494 3973 40 South Alcaniz St. (850)202 4416 office Pensacola (850)202 4440 fax FL 32502 (850)291 0667 mobile phayesAT-SIGNihmc.us http://www.ihmc.us/users/phayes
Received on Thursday, 26 March 2009 16:23:16 UTC