RE: #rdfms-literals-as-resources in scope?

>:Pat Hayes:
>:
>:I don't really care who does the changing, but I do care
>: that we aren't confused.
>
>I agree wholeheartedly.
>
>
>:PS. There is a problem with saying that something is a different kind
>:of thing when it is named by a URI; this means that a thing's
>:ontological status changes when someone invents a name. So a certain
>:star in a distant galalaxy might suddenly become a resource just
>:because some astronomer in China puts up something on a website. I
>:guess I find this uncomfortable.
>
>Would you be saying maybe that instead of implying things change
>because we in effect name them, we should say that things don't
>change (or say nothing), but in RDF some things have names (URIs)
>in order that we can usefully describe them.

Sure, but when stating a semantics we have to have some 
RDF-independent way of characterising the universe (or else the 
semantics gets kind of circular), which is where my (admittedly only 
slight) discomfort arises.

Pat Hayes

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Received on Thursday, 12 July 2001 15:51:56 UTC