[Crm-sig] NEW ISSUE: Scope Note of E77 Persistent Item needs revision

Martin Doerr martin at ics.forth.gr
Sat Nov 9 21:35:32 EET 2019 

Hi Steve,

May be we can make it even better, or may be even ommit it. It is a 
general idea of ontology.
There are two aspects: firstly, to be an instance of a class does not 
depend on knowledge about it.
To be an instance of E77 is not a question of someone having identified it.
Secondly, we can instantiate a class in a knowledge base, talking about 
a potentially distinct item following our knowledge. E.g., we can create 
two B.Traven, discussing that our current knowledge includes a 
likelihood that we talk about two distinct authors, and ascribe 
different properties to them.

May be this should go to the principles, if not already there.

Best,

Martin

On 11/8/2019 11:53 PM, Stephen Stead wrote:
>
> May I make a suggestion for a minor language amendment:
>
> Change:
>
> An instance of class E77 Persistent Item does not depend on whether 
> actual knowledge about identity of an instance of this class exists. 
> There may be cases, where the identity of an instance of E77 
> Persistent Item is not decidable by a certain state of knowledge.
>
> To Read
>
> An instance of E77 Persistent Item does not require actual knowledge 
> of the identity of the instance being currently known. There may be 
> cases, where the actual identity of an instance of E77 Persistent Item 
> is not decidable at a particular state of knowledge.
>
> I think this captures the intent of the previous formulation but is a 
> little easier to comprehend.
>
> Rgds
>
> SdS
>
> Stephen Stead
>
> Tel +44 20 8668 3075
>
> Mob +44 7802 755 013
>
> E-mail steads at paveprime.com <mailto:steads at paveprime.com>
>
> LinkedIn Profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/steads/
>
> *From:*Crm-sig <crm-sig-bounces at ics.forth.gr> *On Behalf Of *Martin Doerr
> *Sent:* 08 November 2019 18:19
> *To:* crm-sig <Crm-sig at ics.forth.gr>
> *Subject:* [Crm-sig] NEW ISSUE: Scope Note of E77 Persistent Item 
> needs revision
>
> Dear All,
>
> In preparation of version 7.0 of the CIDOC CRM, the next official 
> release, we have encountered that the scope note of E77 Persistent 
> Item violates fundamental principles of modelling in the CRM.
> It, wrongly, referred that E77 does not carry an identity criterion.
>
> This was a confusion of the richer identity conditions for subclasses 
> of E77 with the identity condition of E77 itself. A class in the CRM 
> must have an identity condition for its instance.
>
> This excludes, for instance, common cumulus clouds.....
>
> Here my attempt to be more specific about such an abstract thing. My 
> new understanding is that structural characteristics and a notion of 
> integrity are the essentials on which their identity builds. This is a 
> very difficult exercise. Your opinions *much* appreciated!!
>
> *NEW* scope note:
>
>
>       E77 Persistent Item[MD1] <#_msocom_1>
>
> Subclass of: E1 <#_E1_CRM_Entity> CRM Entity
>
> Superclass of: E39 <#_E39_Actor> ActorE70 <#_E70_Thing> Thing
>
> Scope note:         This class comprises items that have persistent 
> characteristics of structural nature substantially related to their 
> identity and their integrity, sometimes known as “endurants” in 
> philosophy. Persistent Items may be physical entities, such as people, 
> animals or things, conceptual entities such as ideas, concepts, 
> products of the imagination or even names.
>
>  Instances of E77 Persistent Item may be present or be part of 
> interactions in different periods or events. They can repeatedly be 
> recognized at disparate occasions during their existence by 
> characteristics of structural nature. The respective characteristics 
> need not be exactly the same during all the existence of an instance 
> of E77 Persistent Item. Often, they undergo gradual change, still 
> bearing some similarities with that of previous times, or dissappear 
> completely and new emerge. For instance, a person, from the time of 
> being born on, will gradually change all its features and acquire new 
> ones, such as a scar. Even the DNA in different body cells will 
> develop defects and mutations. Nevertheless, relevant characteristics 
> use to be sufficiently similar to recognize the instance for some 
> substantial period of time.
>
> The more specific criteria that determine the identity of instances of 
> subclasses of E77 Persistent Item may vary considerably and are 
> described of referred to in the respective scope notes. The decision 
> about which exact criteria to use depends on whether the observable 
> behaviour of the respective part of reality such confined conforms to 
> the reasoning the user is interested in. For example, a building can 
> be regarded as no longer existing if it is dismantled and the 
> materials reused in a different configuration. On the other hand, 
> human beings go through radical and profound changes during their 
> life-span, affecting both material composition and form, yet preserve 
> their identity by other criteria, such as being bodily separated from 
> other persons. Similarly, inanimate objects may be subject to exchange 
> of parts and matter. On the opposite, the identity of a (version of a) 
> text of a scientific publication is given by the exact arrangement of 
> its relevant symbols.
>
> The main classes of objects that fall outside the scope the E77 
> Persistent Item class are temporal objects such as periods, events and 
> acts, and descriptive properties.
>
> An instance of class E77 Persistent Item does not depend on 
> whether[CSO2] <#_msocom_2> actual knowledge about identity of an 
> instance of this class exists. There may be cases, where the identity 
> of an instance of E77 Persistent Item is not decidable by a certain 
> state of knowledge.
>
> Examples:
>
> § Leonard da Vinci (Strano, 1953)
>
> § Stonehenge (Richards, 2005)
>
> § the hole in the ozone layer (Hufford and Horwitz, 2005)
>
> § the First Law of Thermodynamics (Craig and Gislason, 2002)
>
> § the Bermuda Triangle (Dolan, 2005)
>
> In First Order Logic:
>
> E77(x) ⊃ E1(x)[MD2]
>
> *OLD scope note:*
>
> This class comprises items that have a persistent identity, sometimes 
> known as “endurants” in philosophy.
>
> They can be repeatedly recognized within the duration of their 
> existence by identity criteria rather than by continuity or 
> observation. Persistent Items can be either physical entities, such as 
> people, animals or things, or conceptual entities such as ideas, 
> concepts, products of the imagination or common names.
>
> The criteria that determine the identity of an item are often 
> difficult to establish -; the decision depends largely on the 
> judgement of the observer. For example, a building is regarded as no 
> longer existing if it is dismantled and the materials reused in a 
> different configuration. On the other hand, human beings go through 
> radical and profound changes during their life-span, affecting both 
> material composition and form, yet preserve their identity by other 
> criteria. Similarly, inanimate objects may be subject to exchange of 
> parts and matter. The class E77 Persistent Item does not take any 
> position [CSO3] <#_msocom_3> about the nature of the applicable 
> identity criteria and if actual knowledge about identity of an 
> instance of this class exists. There may be cases, where the identity 
> of an instance of E77 Persistent Item is not decidable by a certain 
> state of knowledge.
>
> The main classes of objects that fall outside the scope the E77 
> Persistent Item class are temporal objects such as periods, events and 
> acts, and descriptive properties.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> -- 
>
> ------------------------------------
>   Dr. Martin Doerr
>                
>   Honorary Head of the
>   Center for Cultural Informatics
>   
>   Information Systems Laboratory
>   Institute of Computer Science
>   Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH)
>                    
>   N.Plastira 100, Vassilika Vouton,
>   GR70013 Heraklion,Crete,Greece
>   
>   Vox:+30(2810)391625
>   Email:martin at ics.forth.gr  <mailto:martin at ics.forth.gr>   
>   Web-site:http://www.ics.forth.gr/isl  
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> [MD1] <#_msoanchor_1>
>
> [CSO2] <#_msoanchor_2>
>
> [CSO3] <#_msoanchor_3>Please comment!
>
> Best,
>
> Martin
>

-- 
------------------------------------
  Dr. Martin Doerr
               
  Honorary Head of the
  Center for Cultural Informatics
  
  Information Systems Laboratory
  Institute of Computer Science
  Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH)
                   
  N.Plastira 100, Vassilika Vouton,
  GR70013 Heraklion,Crete,Greece
  
  Vox:+30(2810)391625
  Email: martin at ics.forth.gr
  Web-site: http://www.ics.forth.gr/isl

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