On Friday, May 31, 2019 at 9:12:48 PM UTC+2, Brent wrote:
> > Right. And that of course also applies to "non-existence". And > ontologies are theory dependent. To often the theory is assumed > implicitly and "exist" is use equivocally. > I think the most general ontology is based on three relations: (1) similarity, (2) instantiation, and (3) composition. (1) Similarity between objects means that the objects have some same properties and some different properties. Any relation is an instance of the similarity relation. (2) Instantiation is the relation between an abstract object (property) and a less abstract object (which has the more abstract object as a property), or between an abstract object (property) and a concrete object (which has the abstract object as a property and is not a property of anything). (3) Composition is the relation between a collection and an object in that collection. These three relations seem mutually interwoven but not reducible to each other: instantiation and composition need similarity (because any object and its property, or any collection and an object in it, must be similar); similarity and composition need instantiation (because any similar objects, or any collection and an object in it, must have properties); and instantiation and similarity need composition (because any object and its property, or any similar objects, must compose a collection). And if there are relations, there must also be objects (relata) that stand in these relations. Relata may be relations but there must also be relata that are non-relations, because otherwise relations would not make sense: there cannot be just similarity relations between similarity relations; relations must be grounded in non-relations. Mathematics, logic, and mathematical foundations such as set theory, category theory or type theory study relations and their structures. The unstructured nature of non-relations seems to make them (or at least some of them) candidates for qualities of consciousness (qualia). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/7c8c8f5a-fb4f-499a-abf1-691f6b1b77bc%40googlegroups.com.
