- From: Guha <guha@epinions.com>
- Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 11:52:18 -0800
- To: www-rdf-interest@w3.org
Well, if we are talking about the ontology of RDF ... (I am using the term ontology in the precise sense defined by Quine, i.e., the set of things which exist). Nodes exist. In a sense, every node is part of every chunk of RDF. Its that arcs that may or may not belong to a chunk of RDF. So, nodes can most certainly exist independent of arcs. However, arcs cannot exist independent of nodes. In other words, you can have something about which you know nothing, but you cannot know something without having a thing that knowledge is about. From that perspective, it makes more sense to have an algebra of arcs than of nodes. One need look no farther than predicate logic for an algebra for RDF. RDF is a very proper subset of predicate logic. Guha
Received on Wednesday, 17 November 1999 15:29:17 UTC