[om-list] Re: Cyc example

[Mark Butler]

Tom,  

But you said:

>     Mark, in Predicate Calculus (including first order predicate calculus),
> they are called "quantifiers", including the existential quantifier and
> universal quantifier.  The variables they quantify are the qualities. 

The second sentence is incorrect, because it strongly implies that variables
are called qualities in first order predicate calculus. Actually, in FOPC a
variable is a placeholder for *any* symbol, which may be either a quantity or
a "quality" or something else entirely.  FOPC does not make any distinction
between "qualities" and quantities - indeed I seriously doubt the idea of a
"quality" exists in first order predicate calculus at all.

If you want to speak in your own special dialect you need to qualify your
sentences.  Words do not mean what you want them to mean - they mean what your
audience thinks they mean, which is a function of the context you place them
in, in this case first order predicate calculus.

In order for us to have a clue about what you are talking about, every single
time you use words in a non-standard sense, you should prefix your statement
by, "In Mathesis..." or "According to Mathetical theory..."

- Mark