[topicmapmail] Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus On Line

[Kal Ahmed]

On Sun, 2003-08-31 at 17:20, Thomas B. Passin wrote:
> [Kal Ahmed
> > Is instanceOf really a transitive relation ? I don't believe it is.
> >
> > Kal instanceOf Homo Sapiens
> >
> > Homo Sapiens instanceOf Species
> >
> > Kal instanceOf Species ?
> >
> > Subclass/superclass *is* transitive, but not instanceOf. Unless you mean
> > something different to a class-instance relationship by 'instanceOf'
> >
> 
> I do not think that this illustrates anything about transitivity.  Rather,
> this is the class/instance conundrum.  Is an "instance" of a class supposed
> to be a class or an individual?  If it is supposed to be an individual, you
> would not say "Homo Sapiens instanceOf Species".  If it is allowed to be a
> class, how do you know how to distinguish an instance as a class form an
> instance as an individual?
> 

I think it does illustrate that the relationship as I see it is not
transitive. Which is why I said:

"Subclass/superclass *is* transitive, but not instanceOf. Unless you
mean something different to a class-instance relationship by
'instanceOf'"

Cheers,

Kal
-- 
Kal Ahmed, Techquila
Standards-based Information Management
e: kal@techquila.com
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