Re: Denotation of URIs

Jon Hanna wrote,
> > > The only reason anyone might object to that would be if there was
> > > already a widespread understanding that
> > > <http://www.whitehouse.gov/#43> denotes "The 43rd President of
> > > the U.S."
> >
> > But even so, one might want to argue that "The 43rd President of
> > the U.S." is not George W. Bush.  Requiring a common, fixed
> > denotation for all URI references would eliminate this possibility.
> >  (Unless, of course, you meant
> > that there was some sort of intensional denotation here.)
>
> There is a difference between the concept "43rd President of the
> U.S." and the concept (oh if he were only a concept...) of "George W.
> Bush", and that those two things are the same.

That's right, but Peter's talking about using that URI to denote an 
individual not a concept ... ie. the individual which does (or doesn't 
;-) fall under the concept "The 43rd President of the US".

Which, I guess, is a good illustration of another kind of ambiguity that 
URIs are prone to ... does http://www.whitehouse.gov/#43 denote the 
concept or the individual? Does http://new.example/todays-news denote 
todays news (whatever day today happens to be) or a particular news 
article?

Cheers,


Miles

Received on Friday, 4 April 2003 07:31:49 UTC