Dear All,
Following the decision in Copenhagen, here my proposal:
E2 Temporal Entity
Subclass of: CRM Entity
Superclass of: Condition State
Period
Scope note: This is an abstract entity and has no examples. It groups
together transient phenomena such as events, states and others,
which are limited in time, also called perdurants. It is
specialized
into Period, which holds on some geographic area, and Condition
State,
which holds for, on, or over a certain object. Even though
Persitent
Items (or endurants) have a limited existence in time, because
they may
be destroyed, lost or forgotten, we regard them as disjoint from
Temporal Enties, as their persistent identity allows to
relate Temporal Entities in which they participate.
E77 Persistent Item
Subclass of: CRM Entity
Superclass of: Stuff
Contact Point
Appellation
Actor
Scope note: E77 Persistent Item encompasses (and thereby isolates) entities
which share two attributes: having the potential to exist over a
period of time, and having persistent identity during this
period
of existence. These attributes are intended to apply to both
concrete objects, whether animate or inanimate and to ideas or
concepts.
Hypothetical or imaginary objects fall within this category
insofar
as they can be considered as conceptual objects i.e. E77
Persistent Item
is not intended to be restricted to physical existence.
Persistent Items
are also called endurants.
The conditions under which an object can be deemed to maintain
its identity are often difficult to establish - the decision
depends
largely on the judgement of the observer. Most people would
agree,
for example, that a building ceases to exist if it is dismantled
and the materials reused in a different configuration. Human
beings,
on the other hand, in common with many other organisms, go
through
radical and profound changes during their life-span, affecting
both
material composition and form, yet preserve their identity. But
also material objects in daily use also undergo material changes
due to maintenance etc. without changing identity. Identity in
these cases would seem to depend more on continuity rather than
the presence of any particular physical state or component.
The main classes of objects which fall outside the scope of
E77 Persistent Item are Temporal Entities such as periods,
events and
acts, and descriptive properties, (such as dimensions) which
function
as adjectives and adverbs. The latter depend in there identity
on the object they are assigned to. The former acquire an
identity
only through the changes participating Persistent Items
undergo, but not
out of their own form or substance. We regard them as disjoint
from
Temporal Entities.
As there are endless debates about the temporal nature of objects,
(so-called 3-dimensionalists and 4-dimensionalists), I propose not to waste
our precious time in the next meeting to discuss, to which degree we can find
logical terms to separate E2 and E77. For me, this is hopeless from the
beginning,
and not helpful.
I have never seen a reasonable documentation structure, that puts
objects under events because of their limited life-span. Nor have I seen someone
saying that an event "participates" or is "present at". The evidence in data
structures
is that they are disjoint.
Scope Notes are no logical formulas. They remind us our common concepts.
In that spirit, I have deleted the phrase about "persistent identity of
temporal entities", which was, I believe a misinterpretation of "persistent"
in Persistent Item. The "persistence" is, that we can find it again and say
"I have seen that before". For an Event you would say: "Oh, it's still going
on".
So, please make all proposals for this "hot" scope note BEFORE the meeting.
Cheers,
Martin
--
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Dr. Martin Doerr | Vox:+30(810)391625 |
Principle Researcher | Fax:+30(810)391609 |
Project Leader SIS | Email: [email protected] |
|
Information Systems Laboratory |
Institute of Computer Science |
Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH) |
|
Vassilika Vouton,P.O.Box1385,GR71110 Heraklion,Crete,Greece |
|
Web-site: http://www.ics.forth.gr/isl |
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