Re: Mapping logic to databases. Was: Cardinality in the open world

On Apr 6, 2005, at 8:11 PM, Paul Gearon wrote:
>
> I need to respond to what everyone has said about cardinality (thanks 
> for the responses!), but I thought I'd better write up something on 
> the approach that I've been taking.  That may help me clear up some of 
> my fundamental misconceptions, and ease the rest of my process of 
> understanding.
>
> I'll confess that my terminology may not always be appropriate.  
> Terminology can be confusing, as different sources define certain 
> concepts with subtle differences.  For instance, one source I have 
> defines consistent expressions as being true under at least one 
> interpretation,

Another way of putting it is "having one model.

> while another source defines it as "Having no contradictions."  These 
> end up being equivalent for most systems,

All classical systems (hmm, if "Classical" doesn't include 
intuitionism, then this is too narrow). Paraconsistent system, of 
course, are different.

> but there are subtle differences (according to one professor I know), 
> that I only have a vague grasp of.

I'd be interested in a pointer to what that professor is talking about.

In any case, for many practical purposes (and certainly for RDF), it's 
ok to treat them as the same.

(Of course, I do expect that "having no contradictions" means having no 
contradictions *relative to the logic*. In normal propositional logic, 
absence any other  axioms, the formulas "red all over" and "blue all 
over" are not contradictory. Sellars called these "material 
contradictions".)

> My other problem is relating statements in an RDF database to 
> predicate logic.  Again different people have subtly different ways of 
> doing this mapping.

But, fortunately, we do have a standard:	
	http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-mt/

> The standard meaning of "interpretation"

And it even discusses this:	
	http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-mt/#interp

[snip]

I suggest you start there.

Cheers,
Bijan.

Received on Thursday, 7 April 2005 01:45:48 UTC