On Mon, May 02, 2005 at 03:56:22PM -0700, Duane Nickull wrote:
> Is it true that a formal ontology is a circular reference pattern, 
> albeit a very indirect, complicated and very large one? Does any 
> definition assume the knowledge of other axioms in a model, that 
> themselves may be dependent upon the definition one is trying to
> clarify?  (01) 
Well, if a definition of a concept *does* make use of concepts that are
axiomatized in terms of concept being defined, then it is just a bad
definition. There is certainly nothing in the idea of a formal ontology
per se that would somehow make such definitions inevitable.  (02)
Chris Menzel  (03)
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