Re: Madonna

Thanks for the pointer. I should point out that for every great idea
there have been great (and not so great) skeptics. These often help
advance the field, in that arguments have to be devised and clarified
to overcome their positions.

There have been people who have argued that:
   - we cannot know anything
   - the world is an illusion
   - that logic is fatally flawed
   - that the earth is flat
   - the holocaust never happened

I take it that Bill Kent's arguments must be of the better variety, but
would need more precise arguments to evaluate his position. Again
thanks for the pointer. Please do let me know if you find some
online articles that summarize his thoughts.

In the mean time, I'll just be optimistic. Logic has incredibly
solid foundations. It has received the attention of some of the
brightest minds in the past 2400 years, including Aristotle, Leibniz,
Frege, Betrand Russel, Wittgenstein, Donald Davidson, David Lewis, and
many many many more...


Henry Story


On 9 Feb 2005, at 12:00, Spork, Murray wrote:
> [Cc's trimmed]
>
> Hi Henry,
>
> I was going to point you towards a keynote speech at Extreme Markup
> Languages 2003 by Bill Kent on the "Unsolvable Identity Problem" but
> can't find it anywhere - the best I can find is [1].
>
> Doesn anyone know if it's available online? I'm sure it used to be.
>
> Kent's book "Data and Reality" [2] is essential reading (and a little
> depressing for all of us interested in the "semantics" of data) - just
> as relevant now as it was in the 70s when written.
>
> [1] http://www.extrememarkup.com/extreme/2003/keynotes.asp
> [2]
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1585009709/qid=1107946684/ 
> sr=1-
> 1/ref=sr_1_10_1/202-3816936-0235828
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: semantic-web-request@w3.org
>> [mailto:semantic-web-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Henry Story
>> Sent: Wednesday,9 February 2005 7:42 PM
>> To: semantic-web@w3.org
>> Cc: Roy T. Fielding; Atom Syntax; bloged
>> Subject: Madonna
>>
>>
>> Just a point of clarification about identity. (I thought the example
>> is fun enough that it may be of interest)
>>
>> As we all know Madonna is a material girl, and she lives in a  
>> material [snip]

Received on Wednesday, 9 February 2005 13:52:03 UTC