RE: SUO: Monolithic ontologies (was ontology as science)
Dear Pat,
See comments below.
Matthew West
Principal Consultant
Shell Information Technology International Limited
Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA, United Kingdom
Tel: +44 20 7934 4490 Other Tel: +44 7796 336538
Email: matthew.west@shell.com
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Patrick Cassidy [mailto:pcassidy@bellatlantic.net]
> Sent: 01 July 2003 22:27
> Cc: standard-upper-ontology@ieee.org
> Subject: Re: SUO: Monolithic ontologies (was ontology as science)
>
>
>
> Adam,
> Concerning your statement:
>
> > That entities do not change their class membership over time,
> > and that classes themselves are reserved for those things which do
> > not change, is an important guideline.
> >
>
> First, a clarification: Do you consider SUMO 3D or 4D or both?
>
> The specific question related to your statement above is
> whether roles (student, dentist) must therefore be treated
> only as relations, or whether they can also be classes.
> The latter would seem to require that membership change
> over time.
MW: Not to a 4 dimensionalist, because it is, e.g. a state of a person
that is a student, and that state is never not a student. And roles are
certainly not treated as relations. The key is in correctly understanding
what it is that is a member of the class.
> If roles cannot be classes, then do you consider SUMO
> classes like "Food" and "BiologicallyActiveSubstance"
> as *not* being roles which might change for a particular object?
>
> Pat
>
> =============================================
> Patrick Cassidy
>
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>