Re: Roles, again
vet@cs.utwente.nl (Paul van der Vet)
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 18:24:37 +0200
From: vet@cs.utwente.nl (Paul van der Vet)
Message-id: <199509111624.SAA12371@ethanol.cs.utwente.nl>
To: guarino@ladseb.pd.cnr.it, srkb@cs.umbc.edu
Subject: Re: Roles, again
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Nicola Guarino writes (excerpt from a much longer message):
> In fact we must be *very* careful: there are many forms of dependence, and
> their formalization still presents various technical difficulties. One major
> problem is exactly what you have addressed: every concept is bound to a
> network of relations, but the point to be captured is that these relations
> are not all the same (as you seem to suggest): some of them are - I would
> say - "internal" to the concept, while others are "external", in the sense
> that they bound together different concepts. For instance, database people
> distinguish between attributes and relations, while from the logical point
> of view both of them are just binary relations.
I take this to mean that Pat Hayes is right about you smuggling in
essentialism (note particularly the idea of something being "internal"
to a concept). A Fregean antidote is prescribed. See, for instance,
D.H. Mellor, "Natural kinds", British Journal for the Philosophy of
Science 28 (1977), 299-312.
Paul.
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