[topicmapmail] mathematical and taxonomic properties

[Murray Altheim]

Quoting Isabel Azevedo <iazevedo at dei.isep.ipp.pt>:
>
> Hi.
>
> I'm starting to study Topic Map driven ontologies and I have some doubts:
> is it possible to represent mathematical properties (like symmetry or
> transivity) or taxonomic properties (like disjoint) of a relation
> (association) using Topic Map?

Isabel,

You can represent anything you like in anything you like. I could
represent mathematical properties drawing in the sand on the beach.
It's certainly possible to represent that in Topic Maps, the real
question is whether or not it is reasonable (in both senses of the
word) to do so, and that can only be answered by the requirements
of a project. I've created Topic Map "ontologies" for many things,
including logic. "disjoint" is to my mind not taxonomic but part of
basic set or graph theory, but representing it in a Topic Map is
no more difficult than creating the association template for it,
which is basically what people do in RDF too, i.e., just create the
identifiers for basic concepts and then use them in constructing
sentences. The real question is how to hook it into a reasoning
engine to perform the miracles everyone always talks about at all
those fancy schmancy cocktail parties. (I myself don't go to those
parties anymore. I just draw stuff in the sand on the beach.)

With the upcoming standardization of ISO Common Logic I plan to
create a Topic Map version of that "ontology", which is essentially
just FOL. This is similar to conversions of Cyc or other logic-based
ontologies.

If you're interested in KR I can highly recommend John Sowa's KR
book, or his online "Knowledge Soup" paper (Google finds it).

Murray

...........................................................................
Murray Altheim <murray06 at altheim.com>                              ===  = =
http://www.altheim.com/murray/                                     = =  ===
SGML Grease Monkey, Banjo Player, Wantanabe Zen Monk               = =  = =

      In the evening
      The rice leaves in the garden
      Rustle in the autumn wind
      That blows through my reed hut.  -- Minamoto no Tsunenobu