COSMO ontology, Version 0.48-605.
Last edit 20080319 by Patrick Cassidy
Uses elements of the OpenCyc, SUMO, BFO and DOLCE ontologies,
as well as elements created specifically for COSMO.
Globally unique identifier, fromOpenCyc 0.78.
NOTE that this is a formatted string having 32 alphanumberic characters
with embedded hyphesns, though it is represented (temporarily) as a simple string
here.
Another form of 'unique identifier' has 16 characters, and is
represented in COSMO as an AbstractString which is a subtype
of Identifier. See 'UniqueIdentifier16'
Globally Unique ID
Points to a string with axioms that
include reference to the domain entity.
(UAX: SUMAX-25)
(<=>
(disjoint ?CLASS1 ?CLASS2)
(and
(instance ?CLASS1 NonNullSet)
(instance ?CLASS2 NonNullSet)
(forall (?INST)
(not
(and
(instance ?INST ?CLASS1)
(instance ?INST ?CLASS2))))))
Classes are disjoint only if they share no instances, i.e. just
in case the result of applying IntersectionFn to them is empty.
SUMO - 155
The class of Synonyms has two uses:
(1) When a synonymous term is included as a subtype of Synonym,
it allows searching for a Type by more than one term, in the case where
the alternative term(s) are also unique in the ontology. For
example, where Cyc class names (but not meanings) have been changed,
the Cyc term may also be included as a Synonym. We use
the isaSynonymOf relation to relate Synonym
classes to the class with the base name.
(2) when used with the 'hasSynonym' relation, instances
of Synonym can specify the context (such as namespace)
in which the second term is a synonym of the first, and
can indicate the overall frequency with which the term in that
context actually has the same meaning as the base term.
Since there can be multiple instances of the same synonymous
term, it is represented as a datatype String entity.
NOTE that instances of Synonym need to have unique id's as
their identifiers in the ontology, so it is recommended
that the unique ID's be generated by prefixing a namespace
to the synonymous term that is pointed to by the
'hasSynonymousTerm' property of the Synonym instance.
Thus if some term has the synonym 'process' in the PSL context,
the instance of Synonym that specifies that relation can be named,
e.g. 'PSL$process'.
The general English contexts, where words may be ambiguous,
is indicated by the namespace prefix 'engen'.
points from an instance of Synonym to a string
that is the term which is synonymous to the base concept.
The term should represent the synonym in its natural form,
whether capitalized, with spaces, apostrophes, etc.
A pointer from a concept to another concept of
which it is a synonym. This is a crude method to permit search in
Protege for synonyms of terms in the class search window.
In v0.3 these synonyms were confined to classes.
For other synoyms, use 'hasSynonym'.
hasSynonym is used to point to AbstractStrings that
can serve as a synonym for the base entity (type or instance),
in some context. This relation points to an instance of Synonym,
and that instance can specify the context in which it
is a synonym for that word.
Because a single word can be a synonym of multiple terms,
the structure of the 'Synonym' entity includes not
only the String expression of the synonymous term, but
also the context in which it is a synonym. Among the
contexts, databases and other knowledge models are included.
A superfluous relation for testing.
Objects can be Physical or Abstract or Mental.
All Objects have at least one relation to some other entity.
The relation may be to have an AttributeType and associated AttributeValue.
But it may be some other relation (e.g. to have a location, or to
have proper parts). Thus a point can have Dimensionality (zero-dimensional),
and will have a location, though the location may be in a
poorly defined abstract space. A character in an alphabet is
an abstract object, which has at least one representation as a
shaped physical object. This requirement form an Object to have some relation
is not formalized in COSMO, as it is not needed for performance,
only to clarify the meaning for the human users.
'Object' is a very primitive concept that cannot be defined, but can be
comprehended only by the way this concept interacts with other concepts,
and by its subclasses and instances. This Type is useful as an
umbrella Type for various purposes,including relations on Events.
A Sign is something that refers to something other than itself; it
may be a single entity or a group of entities.
A Sign may be Physical or Abstract or Mental. 'Sign' is a very general
concept, and is used primarily through its specialized subtypes.
A physical phenomenon (smoke) can be a sign (of a smoke-producing process),
and an AbstractSymbolicObject such as the abstract string 'cat' can be a sign
that refers to some animals in the real world.
A Trace is one or more Signs that relate to ordered states of
some Event or FunctionalProcess. A sequence of footprints in the mud
can be a Trace of the event of some animal walking on that ground;
a sequence of abstract symbols, stored in one of more
computers, can provide a Trace of some computational or reasoning process
such as one carried out in the computer.
A Record is an abstract sequence of symbols (usually linguistic)
representing a sequence of events that occurred. For example,
a sequence of abstract symbols, stored in one of more
computers, can provide a Trace of some computational or reasoning process
such as one carried out in the computer. As an Artifact, it has to have an IntelligentAgent as
creator - for traces generated by a computer, that Agent will be the programmer
or, if sufficiently autonomous, the computer itself - or both.
A ReasoningRecord is a Record of some process of Reasoning.
It will usually be a process of Reasoning used in a Computer, but
could be a record of a person's reasoning..
The most general Type for Objects whose subtypes are abstract - intangible -
things that do not have mass. Note that AbstractEntity is not a subtype
of AbstractObject - the name
'Abstract' is retained for alignment with other ontologies. NOTE in
particular that AbstractEntity is not disjoint from
MentalObject, which may be created by people in space and time, and
hae a location in space and time. The kind of abstract things that do not
have a locaiton in space and time are under 'AbstrctObject' in COSMO.
COSMO Note: the notion of 'Abstract' has historically been somewhat vague.
It is often defined by saying that it represents things 'not located in
space or time' - but then subclasses are defined which are clearly
mental constructs with a defined creation time (e.g. musical compositions) -
which means that they must indeed be located in time and space.
In this ontology we distinguish 'Abstract' things from 'MentalObjects' -
the latter are things created by IntelligentAgents (people) that have
no mass, and therefore would traditionally be categorized as 'Abstract'.
'AbstractObject' here is used mostly to categorize mathematical things
such as numbers, which arguably do not depend on intelligent entities for
their existence. But 'AbstractEntities" and 'MentalObjects' are not considered
disjoint here, so there is room for people to argue whether mathematical
concepts are created or merely discovered by mathematicians - we take no
position on that issue.
An AbstractObject is an entity which does not exist in space or time.
This is more stringnent than merely not having mass, the criterion for
belinging to 'AbstractEntity. This category is mostly for mathematical
concepts. Under 'AbstractEntity' we also have 'MentalObjects', which do
exist in space and time.
COSMO Note: the notion of 'Abstract' has historically been somewhat vague.
It is often defined by saying that it represents things 'not located in
space or time' - but then subclasses are defined which are clearly
mental constructs with a defined creation time (e.g. musical compositions) -
which means that they must indeed be located in time and space.
In this ontology we distinguish generically 'Abstract' things from 'MentalObjects' -
the latter are things created by IntelligentAgents (people) that have
no mass, and therefore would traditionally be categorized as 'Abstract'.
'AbstractObject' here is used mostly to categorize mathematical things
such as numbers, which arguably do not depend on intelligent entities for
their existence. But 'AbstractEntities" and 'MentalObjects' are not considered
disjoint here, so there is room for people to argue whether mathematical
concepts are created or merely discovered by mathematicians - we take no
position on that issue. See the note under 'AbstractEntity' to see how 'Abstract' is used in this ontology.
The current (20061027) arrangement here is provisional, keeping some of the
terminology from Cyc and SUMO for alignment - but it may be changed slightly
in the future in a way that will not affect inferencing.
Intangible_Cyc__Abstract_SUMO__abstract_object_ISO15926
ISO15926 An Abstract-object is a thing that does not exist in space-time.
(COSMO note - this is not the interpretation in COSMO - MentalObjects
are abstract, but they do 'exist' in our ordinary space and time.)
SUMO: Abstract : Properties or qualities as distinguished from any particular embodiment
of the properties/qualities in a physical medium. Instances of Abstract can be said
to exist in the same sense as mathematical objects such as sets and relations,
but they cannot exist at a particular place and time without some
physical encoding or embodiment.
#$Intangible: OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002
The collection of things that are not physical - are not made of, or encoded in, matter.
Every #$Collection is an #$Intangible (even if its instances are tangible), and so
are some #$Individuals. Caution: do not confuse 'tangibility' with 'perceivability'
- humans can perceive light even though it's intangible--at least in a sense.
For more on this issue, see the relevant #$cyclistNotes.
Intangible[Cyc]%Abstract[SUMO]%abstract_object[ISO15926]
COSMO: Context is a very general class of entities that
can affect the truth of a logical sentence; within any
given Context, the factual assertions should all be
logically consistent. A Context may be relevant to the internal
states and processes of a computational system, or may more generally
describe the broad situation in which an Agent finds itself when
processing information for the purpose of making a decision. For the
latter agent context, the subtype 'SituationalContextComponent' is
relevant. A Context can be a time interval, location, belief system,
fictional world, theory, hypothetical world, counterfactual situation,
segment of text, DatabaseGroup, or the state of our own real world, among other things.
Contexts can be nested, combined, or intersected. For example,
a Context consisting of a TimeInterval can be intersected with a Context
consisting of a GeographicalArea to make a Context within with assertions
are explicitly true only in that time and place. That does not
mean, of course that the assertion cannot be true elsewhere;
it just doesn't guranteee truth elsewhere. Every assertion in
the COSMO ontology is implicitly true only in the
context of the COSMO ontology, which is itself a theory. But that
implicit qualification does not appear directly in any asertion -
it can be explicitly mentioned if and when COSMO assertions are
referenced in other ontologies.
The nesting of Contexts provides a mechanism to create a
'lattice' of theories. In a subcontext for any given
Context, all the assertions of the parent Context will be
true in the subcontext, and additional assertions may also be true.
In this respect, a Context is similar to the 'Microtheories' of
the Cyc ontology system; it also has some resemblance to
the 'Environments' discussed by Ballim and Wilks ('Artifical Believers',
Lawrence Erlbaum, 1991).
One specialized example of Context is a 'DatabaseGroup'. In a
particular Organization, its set of Databases, if intended to
represent some consistent group of facts, can be viewed and
represented as a Context within which reasoning may be performed.
holdsInContext relates a reified Proposition to a Context in which
it is asserted to be true. The Context may be as simple as a
TimeInteral or a Database, or it may be a complex context which
is a conjunction of a time interval, a location, a belief system, and
any other thing tha might affect the truth of an assertion. Context
in COSMO is used solely as a syntactic device to provide
an umbrella category that can serve as the argument restriction
on the 'holdsInContext' statement. There is no general 'theory'
of context implied in this usage. Other than its syntactical
usage, the only thing that can be asserted about 'contexts' generally
is that the principle of non-contradiction holds only in a single
context, and for assertions defined in different contexts, it cannot
be expected that they will be necessarily true in any other context.
Any set of assertions (including this ontology) will have an
implied enveloping context. If the assertions are to be reused,
it is necessary to be sure that the context of reuse is the same as that
of the original set of assertions.
Each SituationalContextComponent is one of the components of
the situation in which an IntelligentEntity finds itself, of which
it must be aware in order to act or respond appropriately so
as to fulfill its goals. Each SituationalContextComponent is
defined relative to a particular CognitiveAgent whose actions
are being represented in the ontology.
The PhysicalContext in a Situational is the set of
physical objects and attributes that exist at a particular time
an in a particular place that affect the way an Agent will make
a decision, and may affect the outcome of that decision. A simple
PhysicalContext is, for example, who is present and interacting with
the Agent. What is the location, time, temperature? Is the agent indoors
or outdoors? On land or sea, or underwater? Is anything happening
that can physcally affect the Agent?
The SocialContext in a Situational is the set of
people that an Agent is in contact with, or is acting on
behalf of, directly or indirectly, at a particular time. It also
includes prior interactions and goals that affector are affected by
agents other than the one .
A SystemContext is a SituationalContextComponent
that is specific for computational agents, whether physical
(a computer system including hardware) or merely software.
A computational system can be viewed as one agent, though it may include
within it multiple software agents. The SystemContext will include
anything affecting the ability of the agent to act, including,
among other things, the hardware resources available for use -
power sources (line or batteries) CPU, disks, RAM, terminals,
network connections, anything else connected to a system port, etc.
The NetworkContext of a computational system
consists of the number, type, and status of network connections
connected to system ports, as well as any the type and status
of software components that have the capbility of interacting
with networks. A 'netowrk' includes only those communications
links that are connected to other computers; links to
other devices such as measuring devices or non-network
output devices, are not condered as part of the 'network'.
GenericLocation is the Type representing the most
general notion of location, which can be abstract or concrete,
a region of space (including an abstract space, such as the
Internet considered as a set of nodes and links, where the nodes
can represent computers whose physical location may vary),
a point in space, or a physical object (e.g. building, ship, room).
NOTE that an Address is not a location, but a label for a location.
See 'Address'.
NOTE: although *almost* all GenericLocations are exclusively spatial
in some way, there is one 'TimeAndPlace' that is spatiotemporal,
being a region of space-time that specifies some region of space
over some interval of time. Use of an instance of 'TimeAndPlace'
as an argument of a location relation allows one to include the
important time interval qualifier in location relations, even though
one is using only binary relations. this would not be necessary
in a representation with higher-arity relations.
This is somewhat similar to the Cyc 'Location-Underspecified'
Cyc comment: The collection of locations, tangible or
otherwise, which are typically conceptualized by human
beings for purposes of common-sense reasoning as 'locations'.
This collection thus includes tangible Places such as
#$Ireland-TheIsland, as well as metaphoric locations. For
instance, many states-of-being are conceptualized as
abstract locations, such as Trouble ('he saw trouble
ahead'), Depression ('she fell into a ...'),
#$Happiness ('they found bliss together').
be14f511-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Synonym of GenericLocation, included here as a
pointer to the Cyc element.
A RelativeLocation is a location that is explicitly relative to
something else, which may be a region or an object. All locations
are ultimately 'relative' in the sense that they can only be understood
by reference to a distance and/or oritentation with respect to some object.
However, this Type 'RelativeLocation' is intended to represent those
locations that are explicitly relative to something else, in particular
objects or regions that are part of some other object or region.
This is the most generic generic 'location' relation,
and differs from its subProperty 'isLocatedAt' only in that
to be 'located at or on' includes the possibility that
some pile of objects may be located in some open container and
extend beyond the top of the container, but will move when that
container moves because it is held to the container by the
force of gravity or by some topological constraint. The
subproperty 'isLocatedAt' means that the thing located is
wholly locaed within the spatial region coextensie with the
convex hull of the thing or place where it is located.
Thus a pile of coal in an open railway coal car can be said to be
'contained' in the coal car even though it may extend above the
top of the coal car; it will go wherever the coal car goes,
as long as it satisfies this relation. Likewise, flowers in a
vase are located 'at or on' the vase, though they typically extend
beyond the top of the vase, and the top of the flowers may
even be above the vase by more than the height of the vase.
The 'isContainedIn' relation is a subproperty of this relation; therefore
if {?x isContainedIn ?Obj} then {?x isLocatedAtOrOn ?Obj}.
NOTE, however that 'isSupportedBy' is not a subtype of 'isLocatedAtOrOn'
because the supporting object may be flat and extensive, and the supported
object may extend well above the surface of the supporting object..
A general 'location' relation for objects and
regions (but not for Events - use 'occurredAt').
The location can be a region of space (connected or disconnected)
or an object (physical or abstract). Being 'located' at an
Object means being located within the convex hull of the Object,
But recall that a GeographicalRegion includes some space above
the surface of that region, so it is possible that ?obj isLocateAt
a GeographicalRegion even if it is in the air not far above the
surface of that region.
If a pile of objects or a large object is 'contained' in an
open-top container, and extends above the top of that container,
it cannot be said to be 'located at' thet container, in this sense.
For that case, use 'isContainedIn' or its parent 'isLocatedAtOrOn'.
The value (object) of this relation answers the question
'where is it?' (for the subject) in some sense. Somewhat
non-intuitively, this relation can be used to specify that some set of
beliefs (a BeliefSystem) is held by on or more people,
since the BeliefSystem is considered an InformationStore that
can have a physical location; that is, beliefs are located in the
heads of people, or of Groups of people. However, NOTE that
specific diseases cannot be located in people by this
relation, because a Disease is considered as an Event. Use
'occurredAt' for relating specific instances of Disease to
particular people or groups of people.
NOTE that this is an instance-level relation and describes
where an object is actually located at some particular time.
For describing where objects typically are located (e.g.
parts of the body), use 'isNormallyLocatedAt', a relation
that can take a individual Object or an ObjectType as the
subject
NOTE: 'isLocatedAt' may be used with an instance
of 'TimeAndPlace' (a four-dimensional portion of aspace-time)
in the object position of the relation, to specify the
location of some thing (but not Events) over some
interval of time, using a binary relation. Although this relation
is transitive, there are permitted range instances that cannot
bw located at some permitted domain instances: for example, a
'TimeAndPlace' will never be locatedAt an Object or region that
is not itself Four-dimensional, unless the domain instance is nominally
a TimeAndPlace, but with the Time dimension of zero length, in which case
the domain instance is effectively three-dimensional. But in general,
if the subject is a TimeAndPlace, the Object should also be a TimeAndPlace,
not a Region or Object. To avoid unintended errors, this restriction
should be encoded as a constraint.
NOTE: this relation is close in meaning to that of the OBO_REL relation
'located_in' (http://www.obofoundry.org/ro/#OBO_REL:located_in). In OBO
some relations may also be used on Types to create an implicit restriction,
but such usage is not part of COSMO, and that usage would need to be
represented as a rule.
OBO_REL: located_in (see http://www.obofoundry.org/ro/)
OBO comments for located_in: Location as a relation between instances:
The primitive instance-level relation c located_in r at t reflects the fact
that each continuant is at any given time associated with exactly one spatial
region, namely its exact location. Following we can use this relation to define
a further instance-level location relation - not between a continuant and the
region which it exactly occupies, but rather between one continuant and
another. c is located in c1, in this sense, whenever the spatial region
occupied by c is part_of the spatial region occupied by c1. Note that
this relation comprehends both the relation of exact location between one
continuant and another which obtains when r and r1 are identical
(for example, when a portion of fluid exactly fills a cavity), as well as
those sorts of inexact location relations which obtain, for example,
between brain and head or between ovum and uterus
A 'location' relation for Events. For object
or region locations, see 'isLocatedAt'.
The location is a GenericLocation: region of space
(connected or disconnected) or an object
(physical or abstract)
. The value of this relation answers the question
'where did it happen?'.
NOTE that the use of the past tense in this relation does not necessarily
mean that the Event argument occurred in the past before the assertion time;
if the relation relates a possible future Event, this relation can also
be used. The past tense merely emphasizes that we are discussing Events
that, in the given context, are viewed as completed and not ongoing.
This can also be used for types of Events, to specify
a particular location where they always occur. But
to specify types of locations where types
of Events usually occur, use 'typicallyOccursAt'.
A Type-level 'location' relation for Events,
to specify that a certain type of Event usually occurs
at a certain type of location.
For the instance-level location relation for Events,
use 'occurredAt'.
For object or region locations, see 'isLocatedAt'.
The location specified is a GenericLocation: region of space
(connected or disconnected) or an object
(physical or abstract)
. The value of this relation answers the question
'where does it usually happen?'.
.
BFO Definition: An occurrent at or in which processual entities
can be located.
COSMO note: this concept in COSMO is very generic,a nd can be used to
specify a spatiotemporal region of any shape. To specify
a spatiotemporal region of a more defined shape, use 'TimeAndPlace',
for which the spatial shape of the region will depend on the 'location'
component of the instance defined.
BFO Examples: the spatiotemporal region occupied by a human life,
the spatiotemporal region occupied by the development of a cancer tumor,
the spatiotemporal context occupied by a process of cellular meiosis
spatiotemporal_region
A TimeAndPlace is a GenericLocation during some interval
of time. It is a four-dimensional spatial region in the way
that a time-slice of a PhysicalObject is a four-dimensional
Object. These concepts are related inheriting the character of
the TimeSlice Type.
this is a SpatiotemporalRegion that has an explicit location and an explicit
time interval specified. The location is generic, therefore it can
be defined relative to some object; i.e. one can specify the
location of the heart of an individual person over some period
of time as an instance of this Type.
NOTE: That 'TimeAndPlace' is a subtype of GenericLocation,
as well as of SpatiotemporalRegion. Although *almost* all
GenericLocations are exclusively spatial,
'TimeAndPlace' is spatiotemporal, being a region of space-time
that specifies some region of space over some interval of time.
Use of an instance of 'TimeAndPlace' as an argument
of a location relation allows one to include the
important time interval qualifier in location relations, even though
one is using only binary relations. this would not be necessary
in a representation with higher-arity relations.
hasSpatialRegion specifies the spatial component
(of zero to three dimensions) which is extended in time to
generate a TimeAndPlace.
hasTimeInterval specifies the time component
which extends the spatial component of a TimeAndPlace into
the time dimension, to generate the TimeAndPlace which is the
subject of this relation. The intent of this relation can
be alternatively specified by filling in the values for
the beginning and starting times inherited from 'TimeSlice'.
Any measure of length of time, with or without respect to the universal timeline.
Time unit. 1 day = 24 hours.
The Class of all calendar Days.
#$Street-Generic is a specialization of both
#$Roadway and #$UrbanArea. Each instance of
#$Street-Generic is a #$Roadway located inside a city or town.
NOTE: a modern street is typically paved, but that is not
a necessary attribute of a Street.
bd58f514-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A typical busy street in an urban area.
This is the physical object that is the street, not a
region of space. It would extend down to the underlying soil,
and include all materials added (such as crushed gravel) to
prepare the roadbed.
COSMO note: This 'street; Type is interpreted as the full
public right-of-way, including the sidewalks, up to the
private property line of the property bordering on the
street. A RealEstate bounded by a street will therefore be
related to the street by 'isAdjacentTo'.
bd58b4f8-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A #$Place or area with clustered or scattered
buildings and a permanent human population, including
cities, settlements, towns, and villages. It does not
include #$Locales.
acf243a4-24df-41d7-92f0-8a8fd5ad2507
Any region on the surface of the Earth, within the
Earth's atmosphere, or on some object itself located on
the surface of the Earth (including on ships at sea), which is not inside of
an enclosed structure. See 'OutdoorsObject' for further elaboration.
The Cyc 'OutdoorLocation' is very similar - not yet (V0.2) clear
if it is different.
A specialization of #$GeographicalRegion. Each
instance of #$OutdoorLocation is a region of outdoor space;
i.e. a region that is directly subject to atmospheric
weather. Thus, the collection #$OutdoorLocation does _not_
include as instances any instances of #$UnderwaterLocation
(q.v.) or any places that are underground (see
#$Underground). Specializations of #$OutdoorLocation
include #$MountainRange, #$Stream, and #$Highway.
bd58b186-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of #$GeographicalRegion. Each
instance of #$HumanResidenceArea is a region in which a
number of people live semi-permanently (that is, for a
duration of at least a year or more). Examples include
#$SanFranciscoBayArea, #$ResearchTrianglePark, research
stations at the #$SouthPole, and radar posts in the Aleutians.
bd58caab-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A subcollection of #$HumanResidenceArea. Each
instance of #$UrbanArea is a geographical region the whole
of which (more or less) is characterized by typically urban
features (such as streets, buildings, businesses, houses,
schools, sidewalks, sewer systems, power lines, automobiles,
pedestrians, and so on). An urban area might be as small as
an inner-city street corner or as large as the New York City
Metropolitan Area. By default, urbanness is a stuff-like
property of human residence areas: (nearly) every subregion
of an #$UrbanArea is itself an #$UrbanArea. Examples
include #$UTAustinCampus, #$ResearchTrianglePark, and the
territorial extent of various cities (#$CityOfAustinTX,
#$CityOfToulouseFrance, etc.).
bd58caec-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A collection of urban regions. Instances of
#$CityBlock are usually roughly rectangular regions within
cities or towns that are bounded by four streets running
approximately at right angles to each other, and such that
they do not spatially subsume any other such regions. City
blocks are often divided into one or more instances of
#$LotOfLand, on which typically stand houses or other buildings.
NOTE: a Region, not a PhysicalObject. A block can be empty of
structures, so there is no necessary connection. A CityBlock may
have some thoroughfares in it - access roads, driveways,
so it is not necessarily devoid of roadways. The usage
will be conventional, that is, anything usually thought of or referred
to in the same sense as a well-demarcated city block can be
represented as an instance of CityBlock, even if it is not
neatly adjoined by urban streets on every side.
SUMO: A square-shaped area surrounded by Roadways
which is part of a City and typically contains Buildings.
bdf4b730-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
COSMO Note: a GeopoliticalArea is the spatial region containing the
physical portion of earth controlled by a Geopolitical agent
(the government of a country or subdivision). It is not a physical object,
but contains all objects on or near the earth's surface, so that an object
'locatedAt' any region will also be 'locatedAt' any larger region containing]
the first region.
SUMO: Any GeographicArea which is associated with some sort of political structure.
This class includes Lands, Cities, districts of cities, counties, etc.
Note that the identity of a GeopoliticalArea may remain constant after a change in borders.
COSMO Note: in SUMO named 'Nation'. Here we make it unambigous that it is the
spatial region containing the physical part of the Earth that is represented, not
the objects in that region nor the governmental organization controlling that
region. A CountryArea is controlled by a Country (a GeopoliticalEntity)
SUMO: Nation: The physical area, not the organization
The broadest GeopoliticalArea, i.e. Nations are GeopoliticalAreas that are not part of any other overarching and comprehensive governance structure (excepting commonwealths and other sorts of loose international organizations).
The spatial region of the Earth's surface encompassed by the borderlines
of a City.
COSMO Note: in SUMO named 'City'. Here we make it unambigous that it is the
spatial region containing the physical part of the Earth that is represented,
not the physical objects in the region, nor the governmental organization
that controls the region..
The physical objects in that region are represented separately, and are
located at the geopolitical area
SUMO: A LandArea of relatively small size, inhabited by a community of people,
and having some sort of political structure. Note that this class includes both large cities and small settlements like towns, villages, hamlets, etc.
An area that is part of a City, not necessarily
corresponding to official political district lines.
The physical area of The city of London, the capital of the United Kingdom.
This object includes the space containing everything in the city (at any given time), including
the people.
The physical area of the United Kingdom, including everything in it.
The physical area of The city of New York.
This object includes the space containing everything in the city (at any given time), including
the people.
The physical area of the United States of America,
including the regions containing everything in it.
The squarish region in New York City on which
the two World Trade center towers were located on Sept. 10, 2001.
The city block on which the two World Trade Center towers were
located, during the calendar day Sept. 11, 2001, EST (Z-5).
The calendar day from 12:00 AM to the instant before 12
midnight on Sept. 11, 2001, EST (Z-5) New York City time.
9-11.
isSomethingElseThan is a relation that specifies
that the subject entity of the relation is **not** the
object entity of the relation. This is a crude way of
saying that one knows what something **is not**, even when
one cannot be more specific about what something **is**.
The subject and object should have a common Type, but that
Type can be any Type.
An unspecified location that is somewhere other than
some reference location, for some interval of time. This 'location'
category serves as the base element for the pointer to the location where
something (person, vehicle) is known **not to be** (at some
particular time). Being able to assert absence in a particular location
does not necessarily mean that the true location of the individual thing
is actually known - one may simply look around a room and say 'he's
not here'.
Usage: {?X isLocatedAt ?ALIBI} means that ?X was someplace other
than the TimeAndPlace pointed to by the isSomethingOtherThan
relation on the instance of TimeAndPlace that is the ?ALIBI.
This Type allows one to express notions such as 'NN wasn't at the
(meeting/party/scene of the crime/etc)'
Every Alibi must specify exactly where and when an entity was absent,
using the relation 'isSomethingOtherThan' and pointing to a
TimeAndPlace.
A synonym for 'Alibi'..
A synonym for 'Alibi'..
A TimeAndPlace that is disjoint from a
particular country at a particular time. This is one
sense of the English word 'abroad'.
A TimeAndPlace that an object is not at,
and is disjoint from some other TimeAndPlace.
Very similar to 'Alibi', but can be used for
convenience with the linguistic 'absent'. Can be
used for inanimate objects, not just people. See also 'Absence' for the Event.
Usage: {?X isLocatedAt ?ABSENT} means that ?X was someplace other
than the TimeAndPlace pointed to by the isSomethingOtherThan
relation on the instance of TimeAndPlace that is the ?ABSENT.
Absence is an Event that consists of
some object being absent, and takes place in an
Absent (a TimeAndPlace where something is not present.).
For each instance, the Object absent and place of absence must
be specified.
Linguistically the phrase 'J wasn't at work on Monday'
can be expressed as an Absence Event.
An Event when some specified thing didn't happen.
Similar to a PersistentState, but used differently.
Someplace other than the US territory during the
24 hours of 7/15/2007, New York Time.
points from one entity in the COSMO ontology
to another entity in some named Context within which
the entity in the Context has a direct equivalance to the ontology entity
is the subject of the triple. This permits the ad hoc
definition of a Context within which reasoning can occur.
This relation is inherently ternary, and should be elaborated
when Ternary relations are represented. See also the
relations on Databases - such as 'correspondsToTable'
Together with the relation 'isDefinedInContext' it is
possible to create ad hoc (or map) a set of terms that are synonymous
with entities in the COSMO (or an extension) and perform
reasoning only on terms within that Context. This contemplates
at least two scenarios:
(1) some previous conceptual classification is imported, and
because of name clashes, is given its own namespace, which
is defined as a Context. For those names that clash,
the entity in the imported Context is given a namespace
prefix to keep it unique within the overall ontology.
The reasoning engine should then reason only within
a given Context.
(2) To make a subset of the overall ontology for efficiency
purposes, a Context can be defined and each entity in the
overall ontology that is needed in the new dcontext will be
related to that Context by this relation
('correspondsToEntityInContext'). The reasoning engine will then
be able to recognize a Context within which reasoning and inference
can be confined.
isNearTo specifies that some GenericLocation (an
Object or a Region) is 'near' to another, but (usually) not touching the
other. 'near' is relative to the size of the things being related.
To be 'near' another region or object, the distance from one Object or
Region to the other must be within two diameters of the larger object or region.
NOTE that 'isSupportedBy' is a subproperty of 'isNearTo'.
If two objects are touching, that can be represented as a 'TouchingState'.
In SUMO treated as an attribute:
SUMO: (Near) The relation of common sense adjacency. Note that, if
an object is Near another object, then the objects are not connected..
isAdjacentTo specifies that some GenericLocation (an
Object or a Region) is 'adjacent' to another. This means that it might
be touching, with nothing in between, or might be separated by
some thin space, which might have a name, as in a 'crack' or a
sulcus in the brain. If there is a solid object separating them, two
GenericLocations can be 'near' but not 'adjacent'.
NOTE that this relation makes intuitive sense only when the
adjacent objects are of comparable size. We do not usually
say that a bacterium on the skin is 'adjacent to' the skin.
A different (perhaps more general) relation should be defined for
such cases, because the gap that exists in non-touching cases
can be large relative to one object and small relative to the other.
NOTE: this is similar to the instance-level OBO_REL relation 'adjacent_to',
except that this COSMO relation is solely an instance relation and
is not used at the Type level. For specifying the typical
relations of Types (as in the OBO definition below), a
separate class-level relation and inference axioms will be required.
OBO_REL: relation adjacent_to: (only the instance-level relation
is similar to COSMO 'isAdjacentTo'.
Definition: C adjacent to C' if and only if: given any
instance c that instantiates C at a time t, there is some c'
such that: c' instantiates C' at time t and c and c' are in
spatial proximity.
OBO Comments: Note that adjacent_to as thus defined is not
a symmetric relation, in contrast to its instance-level counterpart.
For it can be the case that Cs are in general such as to be adjacent
to instances of C1 while no analogous statement holds for C1s in general
in relation to instances of C. Examples are:
nuclear membrane adjacent_to cytoplasm;
seminal vesicle adjacent_to urinary bladder;
ovary adjacent_to parietal pelvic peritoneum
Specifies the context in which the synonymous term
is synonymous with the base domain argument term.
Specifies the frequency with which the synonymous
term, when encountered in the specified context, actually
labels the meaning represented by the base entity which
is synonymous.
Each Attribute is an entity that has an AttributeType
and some form of AttributeValue; it can serve as the value of a
'hasAttribute' relation. There are three subtypes of Attribute:
QuantitativeAttribute, QualitativeAttribute, and IntensiveAttribute.
In COSMO, the representation of 'attributes' (properties in informal
terms) includes two or three aspects:
(1) the AttributeType (Color, Length, Flexibility). The AttributeType
specifies the kind of attribute that is being represented
(2) the AttributeValue (Color -Red; Length - 10 feet; Flexibility - high)
for quantitative attributes (10 feet, 30 pounds) the AttributeValue
is composed of both a number and a UnitOfMeasure. The UnitOfMeasure
includes 'Dimensionless', a pure number (e.g. as an attribute of
'Cardinality' for a Group)
In the case of quantitative attributes, rather than pointing
from an instance of Attribute to a QuantitativeAttributeValue,
the relations 'hasUnit' and 'hasQuantifier'can poont directly
to the UnitOfMeasure and the Quantifier
the AttributeValue is
represented as the UnitOfMeasure and the quantifier, separately.
For QualitativeAttributes the AttributeValue may be
directly represented. For IntensiveAttributes, the AttributeValue
can have interal-type intensity values such as 'Low', 'Medium',
'High'. The type of an Attribute is specified as the value of
the 'hasType' relation.
AttributeTypeType is a metatype which is a specialization
of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for AttributeTypes
(length, mass), and an argument restriction for various relations on
AttributeType types.
This is a primitive mechanism
to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
QuantitativeAttributeType is a metatype which is a specialization
of the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for QuantitativeAttributes
(length, mass), and an argument restriction for various relations on
AttributeType types.
This is a primitive mechanism
to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
An IntensiveAttribute is an Attribute that
consists of an AttributeType and an Intensity.
The values of an IntensiveAttribute will cover broad ranges
and will not in general be mutually exclusive, as the
ranges may overlap, and may depend on subjective
judgments.
Each instance of Intensity is a value
(high, low, medium, VeryHigh, etc.) which specifies the
value of an IntensiveAttribute. The values
of an IntensiveAttribute will cover broad ranges and
will not in general be mutually exclusive, as the
ranges may overlap, and may depend on subjective
judgments.
As with a QualitativeAttributeValue, an Intensity does
not contain a Quantifier. But its verbally expressed
vallues do contain some aspects of quantity, but not expressed
in numbers.
hasIntensity relates an IntensiveAttribute to the
Value of the attribute (high, medium, low). This is a
subproperty of hasAttributeValue.
hasAttributeType relates an Attribute to the Type of the
attribute.
hasValue relates an Attribute to the Value of the
attribute. The value may be qualitative (Flexible) or
quantitative (10 feet).
hasUnit relates an Attribute or
QuantitativeAttributeValue to the UnitOfMeasure in which
the value is expressed. For a length, for example,
this might be meters, feet, miles, etc..
This relation may be used to relate quantitativeAttributes
directly to their UnitOfMeasure (if they are quantiative
attributes), or to relate the QuantitativeAttributeValue
to its UnitOfMeasure. The direct relations allows one
to specify QuantitativeAttributeValues without reifying
the AttributeValue in addition to the Attribute.
hasQuantifier relates a QuantitativeAttributeValue
to the quantifier that indicates how many units large
the value is.
hasMeasure relates a QuantitativeAttributeValue to
the AttributeType that the QuantitativeAttributeValue is a measure of.
A LengthMeasure, for example, could be a measure of a distance,
a diameter, a girth, oany other property or relation expressed
in units of distance.
hasAttributeValue relates an Object or Substance to some AttributeValue
which the Object may have. Each AttributeValue will be a value for at least one AttributeType, but this relation
does not specify the AttributeType. For cases where an AttributeValue may measure
more than one AttributeType, using this relation may leave ambiguity as to its precise
meaning.
COSMO Note: AttributeValues may be either classes (instances of
AttributeValueType), or instances of AttributeValue. This
allows one to express an attribute as a region (e.g. colors will
bw classes, not instances, to permit subclassing), or for
quantitative measures as instances (e.g. '25 feet'). For quantitative
measures, the representation of measurements as classes would be
conceptually permissible (the class representing the set of possible
values, determined by the measured value and possible error),
or as instances of measure to which an uncertainty value has been
attached. The specific subrelations (subproperties, in OWL)
of 'hasAttributeValue' will in some cases have their range restricted
to AttributeValueType of AttributeValue.
hasAttribute relates an Object or Substance to some Attribute
which the Object may have. Each Attribute will explictly include an
AttributeType and an AttributeValue. For cases where an AttributeValue may measure
more than one AttributeType, using this relation may leave ambiguity as to its precise
meaning. This may be used where it is desirable or necessary to
explicitly specify the AttributeType as well as the value. Thus a
Length will have 'Length' as its Attributetype and some lenght measure
as the value..
hasQualitativeAttribute relates individual Objects or substances
to some qualitative attribute (a subclass of QualitativeAttributeValue)
that the object has.
The accurate use of this property for substances is difficult to express
in OWL. Since Substances are classes, to describe a qualitative
attribute of a substance, in OWL one would need a metatype specifically for
each substance, which multiplies reified entities unnecessarily.
A FOL rule would be easy to construct to correctly relate the
substances to their properties, but for COSMO version 0.2 a work-around
for such a rule is not yet on hand. The restrictions on substances
should be interpreted as meaning necessary conditions on all subclasses
of the substances.
An AttributeValue is the actual value of some AttributeType possessed by some object,
such as six feet for a length, or red for a color. Individual AttributeValues are
represented as Types (classes) in COSMO, not as instances.
IMPORTANT NOTE: the values represented by each of these AttributeValue Types are
here viewed as a region ('Quality Space') in which the actual particular value
(see Type 'Quality') is located. Thus one may say an object has a 'Red' color,
but later refine the description to say it has a 'Fire Red' color. The 'Fire Red'
is also a color region, contained within the 'Red' color region.
For quantitative measures, representing attributes as classes allows approximate
measures to be built in to the ontology itself. One may specify a range
for a measure, and any other measure within or overlapping that range can
be considered as 'indistinguishable from' (not 'equal to') the other measure.
NOTE: under consideration - the possibility of expressing the possession of
an attribute for some interval of time by creating instances of AttributeValue
or of Attribute that are also TimeSlices, with the time interval of the TimeSlice
representing the time interval during which the Attribute was had. This has an
advantage over using timeSlice to creat 4D TimeSllices of an object, and
then attributing an Attribute to it - in that one need not create new instances
of an Object, which may not be easily associated with the 3D object.
A QualitativeAttributeValue is the value of
some AttributeType which is not expressed in quantitative measures.
It can be an attribute of an abstract thing or of a
concrete physical object.
A QuantitativeAttributeValue is a value for
some AttributeType which is expressed in quantitative measures.
Examples are {10 feet} and {32 degreesF}.
An EvaluativeAttribute is a QualitativeAttributeValue
for some entity, concrete or abstract, that reflects the judgment
of an IntelligentAgent regarding that entity. the judgment may be
objective or subjective, but will be relative to some purpose.
An Attribute having some
percent intensity, such as percent unemployed (same
as UnemploymentRate). It is a type of Attribute
in which the quantitative element is a PercentageAttributeValue
(represented in COSMO by a number, followed by 'percent',
as in {25 percent}.
A PercentageAttribute should have an AttributeType that
specifies what the percentage is about. The AttributeValue
will be an instance of PercentageAttributeValue'. Thus
the instance of PercentageAttribute named 'Unemployment5.9pct'
might have relations
(hasAttributeType Unemployment5.9pct UnemploymentRate)
(hasValue Unemployment5.9pct {5.9 percent}).
AssertionConfidence is an AttributeType that
applies to assertions, and expresses a quantitative
measuer of belief by the person making the assertion
that the assertion is true.
A ConfidenceLevel is an Attribute of an assertion
that quantitatively expresses the belief of the person making
the assertion that the assertion is true. The value of the
confidence level is a percentage, expressed as real number
from 0 to 1 with the units 'percent'.
A QuantitativeAttributeValue consisting of
having percentage of some attribute. Each
PercentageAttributeValue points to a Percentage, and
may have other characteristics, such as specifying
how the Percentage was measured.
'hasConfidenceLevel' relates an assertion
(which can be a data record in a database) to the numerical
confidence (expressed as a percent) that the assertion
is true.
In COSMO 'TruthValue' is considered an Attribute
of either an Abstract Proposition or a linguistic Assertion.
See also the subtype 'YesOrNo'.
Cyc: #$TruthValue is a collection of mathematical
objects; it contains the abstract, logical objects #$True
and #$False.
SUMO: The Class of truth values, e.g. True and
False. These are Attributes of Sentences and Propositions.
bd58e3ba-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Each instance of YesOrNo is a TruthValue that
represents either a 'yes' or a 'no' answer to a question. Single chars ('Y')
or full words ('YES') are included as instances. Together with
the question, it represents a truth value for an assertion
which is the answer to the question.
NOTE;the word 'no' can serve as a determiner or quantifier:
'Yes, we have no bananas'. But the word 'no' would be represented
by an entity labeled with the CodeListPrefix 'WORD_'. So this
instance is not the word 'no' and is not a Determiner.
NOTE;the word 'no' can serve as a determiner or quantifier:
'Yes, we have no bananas'. But the word 'no' would be represented
by an entity labeled with the CodeListPrefix 'WORD_'. So this
instance is not the word 'no' and is not a Determiner.
NOTE;the word 'no' can serve as a determiner or quantifier:
'Yes, we have no bananas'. But the word 'no' would be represented
by an entity labeled with the CodeListPrefix 'WORD_'. So this
instance is not the word 'no' and is not a Determiner.
An AssertionalAttribute is an AttributeType
That points to an Assertion or a Question.
The value of Attributes of this type will
be in the form 'true' or 'false' for assertions,
and 'yes' or 'no' for questions.
A CaptivityAttribute is the AttributeType
That points to the question of whether a person
or animal is or is not in captivity.
All domestic animals would have the status
of being in captivity (even if they prefer to stay
at home) (@ToDO should be differentiated. At r603
just starting)
An alternative way of expressing the
relation 'hasCaptivityStatus' - here as a pointer
to the method used in COSMO to express the
notion of being 'captured'.
A TruthAttribute is an expression equivalent
to the answer 'yes' or 'no' to some question, or
to the values 'true' or 'false' to some assertion.
For 'ye' or 'no' answers to questions, the
question will be represented by the AttributeType.
The value is qualitative.
CaptivityStatus is an Attribute of a
person (not an animal) indicating whether that person is in captivity,
i.e. is in the custody of someone else. The values 'yes'
or 'no' are the answer to the question: is this person
in captivity?
This is a general captivity status, not discriminating between
captivity by police, armed forces, rogue militias,
or other individuals. Subtypes can be more specific.
(@ToDo: or a relation 'isHeldBy' on this Attribute could
be used. Not done r603)
hasCaptivityStatus relates a Person to
that's person's status of either being in captivity or
not. At this point (r603) no distinctions are
made as to type or location of captivity, or
duration.
A Measurement is an OrderedPair representing the
result of a MeasurementEvent. It is an abstract representation of
a MeasurableQuantity.
Each instance of Measurement is an OrderedPair in
which the first element is a UnitOfMeasure or other Quantifiable
AttributeValue, and the second element is a quantity expressing some kind of magnitude
associated with that UnitOfMeasure. The magnitude will
typically be a number indicating, for example, how
many individuals have that attribute, or a percentage
indicating what fraction of a group have that Attribute.
A Prevalence will typically be one element of a Distribution.
NOTE that a Measurement does not have to use actual numbers in
the 'Quantifier' field - a Measurement may be approximate, using
quantities like 'High', 'Low', etc. qualifying an AttributValue,
but it does hae to modify a unit of measure.
A Prevalence is a Measurement expressing the
intensity of some one AttributeValue out of set of attribute
values that are related in some way. This is a general
type of Measurement that might be included in a Distribution.
A Distribution is a Group of quantitative
measures of the prevalence (often a percentage) of some
AttributeValue. It may be relevant to an Individual, but is usually
of relevance to a Group of entities. For distributions
of characteristics among a GroupOfPeople, use
'PopulationCharacteristicDistribution'.
A group of numbers expressing the fraction of
some population that has a particular value for some category
of population attribute. This is not a simple number,
but a group of numbers.
hasDefaultVariance can be set differently by each
application, but for most precise interoperability, it should be
the same for all applications. The default variance
for a measure can be absolute or relative. One might specify that
all temperature measures are accurate to plus or minus one degree
Fahrenheit - which might make sense in some applications. A relative
value can be of several types: one might say that any measure
is accurate only to within 1% of the nominal value, or might say
that every measure is accurate to within plus or minus one digit in the last
significant digit of the measure. The 'plus or minus' range by default is
the conventional variance, within which any measure has a 67% likelihood
of being found. The default variance will be used only if an
explicit variance is not specified.
The default variance can be set for each type of quantitative
measure, or may be set for any tree of quantitative measures by
a restriction on the value for the root of that tree.
A salient and distinguishing AttributeValue.
An AttributeType is a general category of attribute, i.e.
some property that adheres in an object, such as length or mass or
color or shape for physical objects. More abstract objects such as
sets or groups may have more abstract attributes such as cardinality.
The distinction between attributes and relations between entities is not
absolute.
COSMO note: The use of two distinct trees of attribute-related types
(AttributeType and AttributeValue) is intended to enable assertions with
a linguistic form such as:
{Jack has Height {6 feet})
where the second argument 'Height' specifies the general type of attribute,
and the value '{6 feet}' specifies the specific attribute value, where
'feet' is a function returning a distance measure. This generic attribute
assertion can then be used with other types of attributes, such as:
{Jack has Weight {60 kilograms}) and
{Car037 has Color RedColor).
HearingAttribute is an AttributeType of animals
specifying the ability to hear sounds, relative to the
abilities of the average animal of that species.
Its values are intensive values, which are instances
of 'HearingAcuity' such as 'excellent'
'very good', 'average' 'poor' and 'deaf'.
A HearingAcuity is an AttributeValue of animals,
of the type 'HearingAttribute' specifying the ability
to hear sounds, relative to the
abilities of the average animal of that species.
Its values are intensive values, which are instances
of 'HearingAcuity' such as 'excellent'
'very good', 'average' 'poor' and 'deaf'.
hasHearingAcuity relates an Animal
to some qualitative or semi-quantitative
brief characterization of its level of hearing
ability. As of r603, the actual values of
the 'HearingAcuity' attribute have not been
A PopulationAttribute is any type of attribute
that can be asserted about a group of people. It also is used
to characterize geographical regions, in which case it
in fact characterizes the group of people who live in that region.
It will be time-sensitive, potentially varying rapidly.
NOTE that this is a subclass of AttributeType, which categorizes
general types of population attributes, and each PopulationAttribute
The values for each PopulationAttribute will be a subtype of
PopulationCharacteristic.
This AttributeType is mostly of interest for aggregate characteristics,
such as 'RacialComposition'.
The individual elements making up that composition would
be instances of 'PopulationCharacteristic' such as
'PercentageAsianAncestry'.
An attribute of a 'Population' that is of interest to
some group for some purpose. Examples are: unemployment rate,
dostribution of religious affiliations, racial distribution.
The Population is usually human, but may be animal. Plant
groups are not included. It may be quantitative or
qualitative. Quantitative characteristics will be instances of
subtypes of 'PopulationAttributeValue'.
A PopulationCharacteristic may also be used
to characterize geographical regions, in which case it is interpreted
as characterizing the group of people who live in that region.
It will be time-sensitive, potentially varying rapidly.
The characteristic is often some percentage of the given
population having a particular attribute, or some distribution of
attribute values for one type of attribute. Thus an
unemployment rate is a simple percentage under 100; a racial distribution is a
group of fractions that add up to no more than 100% (if incomplete,
it may add up to less than 100%).
For qualitative attributes, one might characterize a population
without reference to the fractions that actually have that attribute,
for example 'an Asian group'.
A PopulationAttribute is a quantitative measure
describing some characteristic of some population, which is a type of attribute
that can be asserted about a group of people.
Examples of PopulationAttributes are: infant mortality rate,
AverageIncome, UnemploymentRate, high school graduation rate, etc..
The percentage of members of a population capable
of working who are not employed. The method for calculating this
number varies by country. Each differently calculated rate
can be represented as a subtype of this Type.
An attribute of a 'Population' that consists of
the performance of certain characteristic behaviors.
The characteristic behaviors may be routine (going to Mass
on Sunday for observant Catholics) or sporadic,
possible triggered by eents (characreistic reactions to Events).
To fit into this category the evidence of such characeristic
behavior should be more than anecdotal.
An attribute of a 'Population' that consists of
the performance of certain characteristic routine behaviors.
The RoutineBehavior itself should be represented as
an instance of 'RoutineAction'. Intances of 'RoutineActivityCharacteistic'
should specify the type of routine activity and the typical frequency.
###ToDo: relations have not yet been defined to relate this
Type to 'RoutineAction'.
A type of PopulationAttribute that describes
some attribute of a population related to a traditional measure
of economic activity: unemployment rate, GNP per capita, exports,
imports, average work week, etc. Each of those specific
measures will be a subclass of 'PopulationCharacteristic'..
Each subtype of 'PersonalityTraitValue' is a
PersonalityTrait that may be assigned to some individual
animal, usually used for people. Examples are kindness,
thriftiness, gregariousness. The Types are categorized
by nouns, but the equivalent assignments of such
traits to people in linguistic statements will typically
use adjectives such as 'a kind person'.
Nature is the sum of all essential attribute values
of an individual, forming a recognizable pattern. This can be
used generally for any kind of entity, though linguistically
it often refers to behavioral patterns.
Personality is the sum of all PersonalityTraits of an
individual. This AttributeType can be used for animals as well as
people, for example a particular animal may be characterized as
'aggressive'.
Trait is some characteristic, usually of an animal's personality
that is considered as a part of its total character or nature. Examples are
kindness, ambitiousness, aggressiveness, friendliness.
PersonalityTrait is some trait of personality that is
considered as a part of a total personality. Examples are
kindness, ambitiousness, aggressiveness. These triats will be classified
under 'PersonalAttribute'
A PersonalAttribute is any of a broad range of values for
the general attribute type of 'PersonalityTrait'. the PersonalAttribute
may be inherent (such as kindness, ambitiousness, aggressiveness),
or may be a result of the attitudes of others, such as being 'untouchable'
or having a particular social status.
SocialStatus is an Attribute that a person has as a result of
other people having an opinion of that person. It is not an inherent
trait, though it may be strongly influenced by a person's inherent traits.
Instances may also apply to groups of people, such as women
or young people in a particular culture.
There are aspects of status, such as within-group and out-of-group
attitudes that are not represented by a simple attribute. This
needs to be elaborated considerably.
The collection of attributes that describe a
person's social power, `clout,' the ability to
influence people and achieve one's social goals through
some combination of privilege, position, personal contacts,
skill, hard work, and intelligence. Money (income, wealth)
and esteem/prestige may both contribute to attaining social
power and may be necessary to hold on to it, but they cannot
be equated with it. This is basically Max Weber's schema.
bd58a99f-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Each AttributeValue of the Stability Type is a
Tendency (which see) to participate in some Event or FunctionalProcess,
under certain conditions. The Stability of some Objects, such
as organic tissues from organisms, can depend in a sensitive manner
on temperature (frozen? boiled?), on the presence of potentially degrading
microorganisms (irradiated? pasteurized?) and on the method of
preparation (germ-free to start with?). Other things, like mountains,
may be assumed to be stable in the sense of staying put for very long periods of time,
regardless of the activities of animals, wind, and weather.
Large building are of intermediate stability, tending to be in the
same place from year to year but occasionally being torn down by
people, tornadoes, or earthquakes.
This AttributeType will be important for resolving issues related
to the Frame Problem, i.e. if a condition exists now, is it
likely to exist ten minutes, one day, or one month from now?
In practical reasoning this issue is critically important, but becasue
of its complexity has been often ignored in small reasoning systems.
This generic AttributeType and its associated AttribugteValues
can be used to address the problem of
predicting the relations of situations across time interval.
.
wasRealizedByAction relates a CapabilityType,
who instances are attributes of Objects that can
enable or perform funcitons, to the ActionType(s)
that they can anable or perform. This relation answers the
questions 'what was it designed for?'. The 'dsign'
can be either artificial, as the design of an artifact,
or natural, as the design of an evolved System or System
component.
*Note* that the CapabilityType that is the subject of
this relation in turn can be pointed to by the relation
'hasDesignFunction'. This creates a triangle of
Object-Capability-Action.
'Individual' is a Cyc concept used to distinguish abstract sets
and collections (classes) from things that are individuals. Interestingly,
groups of things can be individuals - if they are defined as distinct
from sets (see 'Group'). This class may be superfluous, but in COSMO
is a convenient catch-all for some aggregate Types that would merely
serve to clutter the top level and obscure the structure of the ontology
if exposed at the top level directly under 'Thing'.
Conversely, Some of the subtypes of the Cyc 'individual' have also been
subclassed directly to 'owl:Thing' to expose those common concepts at the highest level,
to make the structure of the ontology easier to see.
NOTE that some of the concepts mentioned in the Cyc documnentation differ
significantly in COSMO from related concepts in Cyc. But the Cyc documentation is
given here to describe how the similar Cyc notion of Group is described in
that ontology.
From OpenCyc: OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002
#$Individual is the collection of all individuals: things that are _not_ sets
or collections. Individuals might be concrete or abstract, and include
(among other things) physical objects, events, numbers, relations, and groups.
An instance of #$Individual might have parts or structure (including discontinuous parts);
but _no_ individual has elements or subsets (see #$elementOf and #$subsetOf).
Thus, an individual that has parts (e.g. #$physicalParts or #$groupMembers)
is _not_ the same thing as either the set or the collection containing those
same parts. For example, your car is an individual, but the collection of all
the parts of your car is not an individual but an instance of #$Collection.
This collection (unlike the car itself) is abstract: it doesn't have a location,
mass, or a top speed; but it does have instances, subcollections, and supercollections.
In partial contrast, the #$Group (q.v.) of parts of your car (while also not
the same thing as the car itself) _is_ an individual that has location and
mass. Another example: A given company, the group consisting of all the
company's employees, the collection of those employees, and the set of those
employees are four distinct things, and only the first two are individuals.
Any Attribute of an Entity that is an internal property
of the Entity, e.g. its shape, its color, its fragility, etc.
Attributes that apply specifically
to instances of Organism.
Attributes that indicate the sex of an Organism.
Attribute Values that indicate the sex of an Organism.
As of rev 599, only MaleSex and FemaleSex
The gender AttributeValue of biologically male organisms (plants or animals).
This is a genetic trait, phenotypic or social maleness is a different attribute.
The gender AttributeValue of biologically female organisms
(plants or animals). This is a genetic trait, phenotypic or social femaleness
is a different attribute.
HeterogeneousCategory is a catch-all of classes
that subsume other classes of varied basic types. Among
other things, it is a mechanism for assigning qualitative
adjectives that may apply to more than one basic type (like
'dangerous'), and to provide a parent aggregate
Type for some relations. Thes subtypes may also be defined
functionally,and may include entities of different innate
character.
An attribute of things - events, properties, or objects -
that are worthy of paying attention to because they are
often (but not always) important to intelligent agents.
This is an attribute that can be used to mark things that
an agent should keep in mind.
An attribute of things - events, processes, or objects -
that in normal circumstances can be expected to give pleasure
to people who experience it (Events) or possess it (things).
This provides one method to mark those Assets that are
especially worthy of attention.
A common term for 'Salient'.
An Event or object which is unusual enough
to warrant attention when it is noticed.
This is very broad: examples are Landmarks.
An Event or object which is common enough
that it does not attract special attention when it is noticed.
UndesirableThing is a generic class that can be used
to label certain types of objects or situations as undesirable,
and therefore something to avoid, and therefore something
that is salient.
A GoodThing is a generic class that can be used
to label certain types of objects or situations as desirable,
and therefore something to pay attention to, and perhaps to
try to otain or try to do or get done.
A PleasantThing is an Event, Process, Substance, or Object that
will typically (or is intended to) give pleasure to a person who
experences it (an Event) or who has possession of it (an object).
This is a very broad category, necessarily vague because
many things can give pleasure in many ways and in many
degrees, yet it is usefult to be able to predict whether
a person can be expected to be pleased by something.
To be more precise insuch prediction will require a great deal of information
about the circumstances and inclinations of individual people.
NOTE that OpenCyc spatialThing does not necessarily have to be in our Space-Time;
it can be in an abstract space. So this is not identical to
DOLCE 'spatio-temporal-particular', which is a subclass.
OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002
The collection of all things that have a spatial extent or location relative
to some other #$SpatialThing or in some embedding space. Note that to say that
an entity is a member of this collection is to remain
agnostic about two issues. First, a #$SpatialThing may be #$PartiallyTangible
(e.g. #$Texas-State) or wholly #$Intangible (e.g. #$ArcticCircle or a line mentioned
in a geometric theorem). Second, although we do insist on location relative
to another spatial thing or in some embedding space, a #$SpatialThing might or might
not be located in the actual physical universe. It is far from clear that
all #$SpatialThings are so located: an ideal platonic circle or a trajectory
through the phase space of some physical system (e.g.) might not be. If the
intent is to imply location in the empirically observable cosmos, the user should
employ this collection's specialization, #$SpatialThing-Localized.
A subcollection of #$SpatialThing. Each instance
of #$GeometricallyDescribableThing is a spatially-connected
spatial thing (of 0, 1, 2, or 3 dimensions) that either (i)
has or approximates a simple geometric shape (e.g. it is a
#$Line or a #$Hemisphere) or (ii) consists of a number of
(connected) parts in a relatively stable geometric
configuration, where each such part has or approximates a
simple geometric shape (e.g. a table consisting of a
3-D-disc-shaped top and four cylindrical legs). A
#$GeometricallyDescribableThing might be tangible (see
#$PhysicalObject) or intangible (see
#$GeometricallyDescribableThing-Intangible). Note that what
counts as approximating a given simple geometric shape --
and thus what spatial things count as
#$GeometricallyDescribableThings - varies with context. In
a context that was so fine-grained shape-wise that even the
shapes of the individual molecules on the surface of an
object were considered relevant to the object's shape,
perhaps nearly every (connected, solid) tangible object
would be geometrically-describable. In more everyday
contexts, on the other hand, an unopened can of soup would
be geometrically-describable (as a cylinder), while a
telephone or an animal's body would probably not.
bd58c42e-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
isSpatiallyDisjointWith relates one.SpatialThing
(a region, object, or event) with another SpatialThing that has
no regions in common with the first. This relation can be used to
express the fact that anything wholly located in one SpatialThing
cannot have any part located in another SpatialThing that is
disjoint with the first in this sense.
NOTE that when first-order rules are associated with this
ontology, it will be possible to infer that any part of a region1
that isSpatiallyDisjointWith a region2 is also disjoint with
any part of that region2.
COSMO Note: note that Cyc SpatialThing does not have to be in our space-time,
whereas DOLCE spatio-temporal-particular is. So the DOLCE class is a subclass
of the Cyc class.
OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002
The collection of all things that have a spatial extent or location relative to some other #$SpatialThing or in some embedding space. Note that to say that an entity is a member of this collection is to remain agnostic about two issues. First, a #$SpatialThing may be #$PartiallyTangible (e.g. #$Texas-State) or wholly #$Intangible (e.g. #$ArcticCircle or a line mentioned in a geometric theorem). Second, although we do insist on location relative to another spatial thing or in some embedding space, a #$SpatialThing might or might not be located in the actual physical universe. It is far from clear that all #$SpatialThings are so located: an ideal platonic circle or a trajectory through the phase space of some physical system (e.g.) might not be. If the intent is to imply location in the empirically observable cosmos, the user should employ this collection's specialization, #$SpatialThing-Localized.
Note that most of the Cyc 'SpatialThings' are in our universe (though not necessarily) , so most are also under DOLCE 'spatio-temporal-particular'.
DOLCE: Dummy class for optimizing some property universes. It includes all entities that are not reifications of universals ('abstracts'), i.e. those entities that are in space-time.
spatio-temporal-particular[DOLCE]%SpatialThing
COSMO note: all PhysicalObjects are non-trivially continuous
only with respect to some level of granularity.
Cyc: A specialization of #$SpatialThing. For every
instance REGION of #$SpatiallyContinuousThing, any two
points it subsumes are connected by some path it also
subsumes. Positive exemplars include a drinking glass, a
haystack, a spiderweb, or a region of space in the shape of
any of these things. If the glass is broken and its pieces
no longer touch each other, it is not a
#$SpatiallyContinuousThing. Some borderline exemplars
depend on granularity. At a macroscopic level of
granularity, a dense cloud of smoke is effectively
continuous. On the microscopic level, it is composed of
independent particles that do not touch each other.
9ae4ab12-8221-41d7-9022-96b38c86ffc1
OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002
The collection of all spatial things, tangible or intangible,
that can be meaningfully said to have location or position in the
empirically observable universe of the context in question. This
includes all #$PartiallyTangible things, such as pyramids and ships,
as well as certain #$Intangible spatial things, like the #$Equator. Also
included are all #$Events that can be pinned down to specific places
(see #$Event-Localized), and thus all #$PhysicalEvents. But note that many
events are non-examples, such as the event of a certain law coming into
effect and (presumably) purely mental events as well, at least in most
contexts. Also excluded are #$SpatialThings that are _not_ localized,
such as purely abstract geometrical figures (e.g. a Platonic sphere).
All instances of #$SpatialThing-Localized are temporal things, and thus
have finite lifespans (the upper bound of which is the lifespan of the
universe itself). Finally, note that imaginary entities like Frodo,
Captain Queeg, and #$HAL9000-TheComputer may be localized within
the (imaginary) universes attaching to the fictitious contexts in which
they are defined, and so would be instances of #$SpatialThing-Localized
within those microtheoretic contexts.
NOTE: because Cyc 'SpatialThing-Localized' includes intangible
spatial things, this is not identical to the purely physical
objects such as 'Oject' in SUMO. In COSMO,purely physical objects
are categorized in the Type 'PhysicalObject', which is a subtype
of this 'SpatialThing-Localized' category.
An Artifact-Generic was anything created by an Agent. More useful
categories will be the more specific Types.
Original COSMO Indented List name:
Artifact-Generic_includes_conceptual_works__laws__information_objects_
OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002
A collection of things created by #$Agents. These creations may be either
tangible (like a hammer, a bowl, or a bridge) or intangible (like a
set of laws, a #$KnowledgeBase, or Beethoven's Ninth Symphony). Thus,
the collection of #$Artifact-Generics is partitioned into #$Artifact
and #$Artifact-Intangible (q.v.).
wasCreatedBy relates an Artifact (concrete or abstract) to the
Agent who created it. Agents are construed very broadly for this
relation, and a river could be the Agent that created a
canyon.
NOTE that the range includes an AbstractString, which is semantically
nonsense, but is included as a pragmatic tactic to allow
subrelations of this relation to be used in mapping database
records to their creators. The creators will sometimes be
represented in the database only as a string, and in such cases
an implementing system, at its option, can avoid creating
a new Person object (instead creating an AbstractString object),
when the system cannot identify the 'creator' of the record.
This tactic may change as the ontology is further developed,
and experience with mapping databases increases..
wasAuthoredBy relates a textual object (concrete or abstract)
to the IntelligentAgent who is credited with creating it. The Agent can be
a person, organization, group of people or a machine (see 'AuthorOfRecord').
This special relation, together with the companion Type of 'AuthorOfRecord'
(a subtype of 'IntelligentAgent') serves the purpose of preserving the
option to list known people (instances of 'Person') or unknown individuals
('Anonymous'), pen names ('MarkTwain'), or pseudonyms whose real identity
is unknown. The unknowns and pen names can be instances of 'AuthorOfRecord'.
When identities of unknown authors are discovered, they can be equated with the
previous AuthorOfRecord, or that instance can be replaced in the knowledge base,
if it is unimportant to have a record of the author being initially unknown.
The same as 'ArtifactObject', but the shorter term was
considered potentially misleading as the main label for this
concept, as it has been used to refer to abstract artifacts
as well as physical objects.
Artifact*
COSMO note: this class was merged with the Cyc 'Artifact-HumanCreated'
because little differnce could be discerned. All instances of Artifact will
be created by humans - people, groups, organizations, or their automaton
servants. Artifactual objecgts created by non-humans (e.g. animals) will
be instgances of ArtifactObject.
Artifact( Cyc and SUMO); material-artifact(DOLCE)
SUMO: A CorpuscularObject that is the product of a Making.
Cyc comment for ;Artifact-HumanCreated':
A collection of individual #$Artifacts. Each
instance of #$Artifact-HumanCreated is a tangible thing made
by an instance of #$HomoSapiens, or by a (#$GroupFn
#$HomoSapiens). Examples include instances of
#$Clothing-Generic, #$Automobile, #$DrainageCanal, and #$HydroelectricDam.
OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002
A specialization of #$InanimateThing. Each instance of #$Artifact is an at least
partially tangible thing which was intentionally created by an #$Agent (or a group
of #$Agents working together) to serve some purpose or perform some function. In order
to create an instance of #$Artifact, it is not necessary that an #$Agent create
the matter out of which the #$Artifact is composed; rather, an #$Agent can create
an instance of #$Artifact by assembling or modifying existing matter. Examples of
#$Artifacts include a wooden flute that's been whittled from a tree branch, a sawhorse
that's been put together out of boards and nails, and a coin that's been minted by
embossing or by melting liquid silver into a mold. In addition to the obvious human
artifacts (buildings, tools, textiles, power lines), the collection #$Artifact also
includes certain sorts of things made by #$Animals, such as bird nests, termite mounds,
and beaver dams. Artifacts without any tangible parts are excluded from the collection
#$Artifact; they are included in the collection #$Artifact-Intangible.
DOLCE: material-artifact: No easy definition of artifactual properties is possible,
hence it is better to rely on alternative descriptions and roles: a physical object
that shows or is known to have an artifactual origin that counts in the tasks an ontology
is supposed to support, will be a material artifact. On the other hand, physical objects
that do not show that origin, or that origin is unimportant for the task of the ontology,
will be physical bodies. Formally, a restriction is provided here that requires that
the collection whose members are (at least some of the) proper parts of a material artifact
is *unified* by a plan or project.
wasCreatedAtTheRequestOf relates an ArtifactObject
to the IntelligentAgent (usually a Person) who ordered it
to be created. This should be used for objects of special
interest whose creators will also be of interest. This differs
from 'wasCreatedBy' in that most of the work of creation must be done by someone
other than the agent (person, organization, group) who ordered it to be created.
It is therefore mostly used for large objects like buildings and special-order
objects of any kind.
An instance of #$ObjectType, and a specialization
of #$Artifact-Generic. #$Artifact-NonAgentive is the
collection of all artifacts that are _not_ agents (i.e.,
that are _not_ instances of #$Agent-Generic).
Specializations of #$Artifact-NonAgentive include #$Bicycle,
#$Pants, #$Canal, and #$FoodUtensil.
COSMO note:
NOTE that there is a concept of 'scale' of the manufacturing
process that distinguishes 'manufactured' from handcrafted
goods. This is a continuous measure, therefore there will
be a fuzzy borderline between 'Product' and handcraft.
Where doubt exists, things manufactured in numbers more than
a few and offered for public sale and distribution using any form of
advertising will be considered as members of this class.
Cyc: The collection of all #$Artifacts that are made or
processed in large-scale industrial operations for
distribution (normally sale) to agents outside the
manufacturing organization. This includes manufactured
stuff, e.g. Finlandia vodka; refined ore, e.g. iron;
otherwise procesed natural material, e.g. cut diamonds, as
well as manufactured objects. This collection excludes
handicrafts; privately made stuff, e.g. moonshine; and other
artifacts produced by one or a few people on a small scale.
The property of substances or objects that
are considered (by their possesor or potential possessor) to
have some positive value.
The property of being satisfactory to an Agent for
a purpose, reflecting the Agent's judgment that it will
serve some purpose. This is an Evaluative (judgmental) attribute.
The property of not being Acceptable.
The property of substances or objects that
are considered (by their possesor) to have no positive value.
Anything that has value to a cognitive agent. The
value does not have to be monetary, it can be sentimental. The thing can be
an object, a right, a substance, or something intangible such
as friendship or knowledge. Anything that would cause distress to an
agent if it were lost is a valuable thing. Anything that can be
used to help an agent achieve desired goals (e.g. food) is also a
valuable thing - see the subtype 'Resource'. Anything that an intelligent agent
would pay money to obtain is a valuable thing; in this case,
the 'value' is at least approximately quantifiable.
Anything that has no net value to the cognitive agent
that currently possesses it. The thing (object, substance, right)
may have some value to someone else, but if the possessing agent
considers it too much of a nuisance to try to gain paymenty for it,
it is effectively worthless. This is the quality of
trash, garbage, refuse, etc..
Every Group consists of one or more entities considered as
one unit, and is related to the component entities by the relation 'hasComponentElement'.
A Group is not an abstract or mathematical concept - every group derives its
properties solely from the entities that are its component elements. Thus
a group of solid objects would be a solid object, and the mass of that object
would be equal to the sum of the masses of the component objects. It has
*some* similarity to the 'mereological sum' of mereologists.
However, a Group may have component elements of very diverse kinds - there
is no restriction on the membership of a Group, though one element can
only count once in the cardinality of the group. A Group is somewhat
similar to a Cyc 'Group', but is not restricted to physical things, and
has relations to its members named differently than in Cyc.
NOTE: A Group that has one component element is identical to that single element; in this respect
it is similar to the mereological notion of a 'mereological sum'. The only group
that can have itself as a component element is the group of one element. This
latter property is the peculiar characteristic of this concept of 'Group',
in contrast to other aggregates except, as noted, for 'mereological sum'.
This concept of 'Group' makes certain representations covenient. In some cases,
we want to deine a finction that may return one or more elements, but if there
is one element, we also want that single element to be identical to the single element,
and not encapsulated in an enveloping element. Returning a Group will allow that behavior.
Cyc Documentation for 'Group' (NOTE some differences from COSMO 'Group')
OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002
A collection of temporal objects. Each instance of #$Group is a composite object
made up of one or more individual objects or events. A group is related to each
of its members by the predicate #$groupMembers (q.v.) [COSMO: 'hasComponentElement']
Note that instances of #$Group are _not_ collections.
A group has temporal extent [COSMO: a Group may be abstract] and might have spatial
location, while a collection is timeless and nonspatial. It is of course possible
to define a collection parallel to any given group, so that the instances of the
collection are exactly the group-members of that group; e.g. each toe on my left
foot (and nothing else) is both an instance of the collection of my left toes and
a member of the group of toes on my left foot. But that group (of my left toes)
is a spatiotemporal thing while the correlated collection (of my left toes) is not.
Similarly, if a certain flock of pigeons is considered as having a location, a spatial
extent, and a time of existence, then the flock is being considered a _group_ and not
a collection. Finally, unlike a collection, a group cannot be empty, but must
have _at_least_one_ group-member. As a default, a group whose group-members all
are instances of #$SomethingExisting is itself an instance of #$SomethingExisting,
and a group whose group-members all are #$Events is itself an #$Event. Instances
of #$Group include #$QueensGuard, #$ThreeWiseMen, #$SantasReindeer, and
#$InternationalCommunity.
A property of a Group or Set:
A negative or nonnegative whole number.
A property type of an Object, Region, or Space.
NOTE: some objects such as abstract or mental objects may
not have a meaningful dimensionality.
A property of an Object, Region, or Space.
It consists of a nonnegative integer, but is represented
as that integer with the 'UnitOfMeasure' being 'Dimensional'.
Hence:
(Every Point hasAttributeValue {0 Dimensional})
hasDimensionality relates an Object or region to the
number of othogonal dimensions that it occupies.
For objects whose specification has dimensions that are non-orthogonal,
the Dimensionality should be the number of orthogonal
dimensions to which the non-orthogonal dimensions can be reduced.
PhysicalObjects will always be 3-diimensional. they may have
surfaces that are 2-Dimensional, edges that are 1-Dimensional, and
representations that are 2D and also '2-1/2 dimensional'.
hasCardinalty relates a Group to an integer enumerating
the number of direct component elements of which the group consists.
Because an element of a Group may itself be a Group, the Cardinality
does not indicate the number of things that ultimately are not Groups,
only the number of things that are related by the 'hasComponentElement'
relation.
NOTE that AbstractString is icluded explicityl, not only as a
subtype of Group, because zero-lenght (zero-cardinality, considered
as though it were an ordered group) strings
may exist but zero-cardinality Groups are not permitted.
The collection of all groups of animals of the
same type living in the same location. For any instance
of this Type, it is necessary
to specify the location to satisfy the restriction.
NOTE that a population is only those animals (or people)
located in a particualr location at a particular time.
it is therefore time-sensitive. The location is
generic; therfore, one can use this to describe the
people who are on the liner Queen Mary, wherever
it happens to be at that time.
bde046c0-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The collection of all people living in the
same location. This corresponds to the 'population'
of some geographical area. Inclusion in the population
is determined by location, not by citizenship.
A population may be said to have certain characteristics,
provided that those characteristics are stable for some
period of time in a given area.
hasComponentElement relates a Group to the individual
elements of which the group consists.
Any entity can be aggregated with another entity to form
a conceptual Group.
NOTE: this 'element' is not the chemical 'element'!
See also the specializations of this relation, for
OrderedGroups, indicating the location in the
OrderedGroup of a particular element.
See 'hasFirstElement' and 'hasSecondElement'.
isaComponentElementOf relates some entity to a Group of which it is a member.
It is the inverse of 'hasComponentElement'. Since Groups
are not defined arbitrarily, and seldom defined automatically, this relation
will typically be used only when it makes sense to do so. For example, one
may define a Group of 'attendees' of some particular meeting. Then to say
that a Person is a member of that Group would allow inference that that
Person was in a particular place at a particular time..
hasSubgroup relates a Group to some
other definable Group, all of whose component elements are
also component elements of the larger Group..
Every PluralThing is a Group consisting of at least two or more entities,
considered as one entity, and is related to the component entities by the
relation 'hasComponentElement'.
NOTE: in COSMO, Group is restricted to groupings of at least
one entity, as in OpenCyc. In this manner PluralThing stays closer to the
linguistic intuition of a plural. A more generic Group that is not a
TemporalThing could be defined, but is left out at this point.
NOTE: BFO has the notion of an 'ObjectAggregate' which is similar
to a 'PluralThing'; but in BFO the requirements are more stringent
than for COSMO 'Group', since a COSMO 'Group' can be composed of arbitarily
defined components, whereas in BFO each 'Object' of the aggregate
must be an object with perceptible boundaries. Since BFO 'Object'
is disjoint from 'fiat object part' and from ObjectAggregate,
we need to make 'ObjectAggregate' a subtype of 'PluralThing',
and to specify that each component of an 'ObjectAggregate' is a
'WholeObject'.
An OrderedGroup is a Group that has some ordering relation between
component elements. It must have more than one component element,
Therefore it is a PluralThing and can never be a singleton.
An OrderedGroup may be physical, whereas a List is an AbstractInformationStore.
Therefore not all OrderedGroups are Lists. One may define an OrderedGroup
that is a List, if one is careful that the OrderedGroup is also an
AbstractInformationStore.
To define a type of OrderedGroup that may have as few as one element,
define a type that is a subtype of both Group and List.
A Queue is a group of people lined up to do something in
sequence - a waiting list. This is a PhysicalObject - the Group of People,
not something abstract.
hasFirstElement is a specialization of the
relation 'hasComponentElement' applying to OrderedGroups,
specifying the first component element of an OrderedGroup.
hasSecondElement is a specialization of the
relation 'hasComponentElement' applying to OrderedGroups,
specifying the Second component element of an OrderedGroup.
A OrderedPair is a Tuple containing two
elements.
2
COSMO note: we make a series a subtype of
OrderedGroup: specifically, the ordering relation is
that the component elements are arranged in a linear
fashion. It can be concrete or abstract. A series must
have at least two component elements.
Cyc: A specialization of #$Group (q.v.). Each instance
of #$Series is a complex temporal thing in which two or more
other things are ordered in a linear fashion. Examples
include a line of people at a ticket booth (an instance of
the specialization #$PhysicalSeries) and a series of pitches
in a baseball game (an instance of the specialization
#$EventSeries). In each instance of #$Series, there is some
relation by which its members are ordered (see the related
predicate #$seriesOrderedBy); this relation often varies
from series to series.
be8e694c-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A #$SeriesWithoutRepetition is a #$Series in which
each member occurs only once.
bf7c353a-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A CompositeConcept is a Group that consists of component elements of
different basic types, such as a System (which see). The notion of a CompositeConcept
provides a way to represent things like situations that have essential elements
of different type (such as States and FunctionalProcesses).
An Entity that has a beginning point in time and an ending point in time.
The usage of this term in COSMO differs from the usage in OpenCyc, in that it
does **not** include PhysicalObject as a subtype, though the two categories are
not disjoint. The purpose of the cyc concept
appears to be to permit relating both PhysicalObjects and Events
to their time location. In COSMO, that purpose is served by the relation
'hasTemporalLocation' (which see) which has as its domain the union of
Events and PhysicalObjects.and 'wasCreatedDuring' and 'wasDestroyedDuring',
There is, however, a subtle issue in that the beginning and ending
time of a 'TemporalThing' may be the same time, i.e. the
instance may be an instantaneous time slice of a time-extended
entity. Since in COSMO zero-interval extended entities
are indistinguishable from point entities, this means that
a '3-D' endurantist object can be an instance of 'TemporalThing'
just as a HumanRole, a '4-D' perdurantist object can be an
instance of the typically '3-D' Person.
In Opencyc a 'TemporalThing' is very generic, it is anything that has
a beginning point in time (and presumably an ending point, though it
may not be known for existing things). Thus physical objects, which
must come into existence at some time (perhaps the beginning of time), as well
as events, are 'TemporalThings'. In COSMO, TemporalThing is reserved
for TimeIntervals and Events, and PhysicalObjects are not classified as
subtypes of TemporalThing. The creation and destruction time of
PhysicalObjects will use different relations.
OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002
The collection of all things that have temporal extent or location, i.e. things
about which one might sensibly ask When? . #$TemporalThing thus contains many kinds
of things, including events, physical objects, agreements, and abstract pieces of time.
Note that #$TimePoint is a specialization of #$TemporalThing, since time points
have temporal location, although they arguably lack temporal extent.
Abstract things that are timeless - such as mathematical sets, attributes,
and numbers - are of course _not_ instances of #$TemporalThing.
NOTE that although every TemporalThing must have a starting and ending
TimePont, that notion is not represented as an existential
restriction so that it will not be necessary to explicitly
represent the starting and ending times of intervals whose
starting and ending times can be calculated from the name.
This is a pragmatic and implementational, not a theoretical
consideration.
A TimeSlice is a temporal part of some entity - a PhysicalObject
Role, or GenericLocation. In a four-dimensional (perdurantism) treatment of objects,
this would be a part of a four-dimensional object. Every TimeSlice has
a time at which it begins and a time at which it ends, specified by
'hasStartingTimePoint' and 'hasEndingTimePoint'. Because a TimeSlice
is not disjoint with anything else, this allows one to create
four-dimensional time slices of physical objects (or phycial locations)
by creating an instance of an object that is also an instance of a
TimeSlice, and spcifying the beginning and ending time points. Such an
object could be used as an argument in a binary relation, thereby including
the intended time interval in the relation.
This usage creates an interpretation of entities in this ontology
that may seem at variance with both the traditional 'endurantist'
and 'perdurantist' interpretations. It is closer to the
'perdurantist' in that the object without specification of
its time slice may be interpreted as the whole-life object, but there
is a major difference: the COSMO leaves open the possibility of
specifying that a relation on an object holds during some interval
of time - and that is not consistent with traditional four-dimensionalist
usage. The COSMO usage permits more flexibility in the way relations
can be specified within temporal boundaries.
COSMO: SituationProcessEventOrState is a broad category that
includes Events, FunctionalProcesses, and PersistentStates,all of which are
different aspects of the same fundamental conceptual entity, commonly
called an 'Event'. Each Event is a Group containing the component elements:
(1) InstantaneousState at the starting time
(2) InstantaneousState at the Ending time
(3) The FunctionalProcess that describes the intermediate states between the starting and ending times.
**Informally**, a state,process, or event is interpreted as the set of
*values* of some 'fluents' (attributes or relations that may change over time),
but the actual *formal* representation is a Group in which the group elements
are the *LinguisticAssertions* specifying the values of the fluents
pertaining to some Group of Objects. Each LinguisticAssertion specifies
the value at some time point (or time interval). The differences in
State, Process,and Event are:
State: The Group of Assertions that hold at one time point (InstantaneousState),
or persist without change of value over some contiguous interval
of time (PersistentState). No value can chage within a State.
FunctionalProcess: The full set of LinguisticAssertions specifying the values of
fluents at each time point or smaller TimeInterval
within a TimeInterval in which the Process is defined. The set of
LinguisticAssertions relate times to values,and in that respect is
analogous to a mathematical function. In analogy to a mathematical
function, one can derive a 'rate' for a Process (in cases where
the values are quantified) by taking the ratio of (difference in
value) to (difference in time) for any TimeInterval in which a change
of value is specified. This rate may change from time to time
during a FunctionalProcess.
Event: focuses on the values of the fluents at the beginning and ending of some
TimeInterval, but also includes the FunctionalProcess that specifies
the fluent values at times between the beginning and ending. Since the
focus of an Event is on the change from one time point to the next,
one cannot specify a 'rate' in the same sense as for a FunctionalProcess,
where the rate may change many times during the FunctionalProcess.
For an Event, one can derive a single 'rate' value that specifies the overall
ratio of change of fluent value to time, between the beginning
and ending points, and for an Event, only one such 'rate' can be
defined.
NOTE: In COSMO a Situation is classified as a CompositeConcept because
it is considered as a composite of the InstantaneousStates at the beginning
and ending times of the Situation (which can be the same time), plus the
FunctionalProcess that describes the states intermediate between the
beginning and ending times.
Called: Situation-Temporal(Cyc) perdurant(DOLCE)
***** Special COSMO NOTE on BFO 'ProcessualEntity' *****************************
In BFO the Type 'ProcessualEntity' appears to be most closely similar to
COSMO 'SituationProcessEventOrState'. However, the division of the BFO
Type into 'FiatProcessPart' and 'Process' has no corresponding
division in Cyc or SUMO. In COSMO we include a FiatProcessPart for
compatibility, but do not use it (no subtypes), and do not use the BFO partition
of 'ProcessualEntity'.
BFO Definition: An occurrent that exists in time by occurring or happening,
has temporal parts and always involves and depends on some SNAP entity.
Examples: the life of an organism, the process of meiosis, the course of a disease,
the flight of a bird
***** End Special NOTE on BFO 'ProcessualEntity' *****************************
Cyc 'Situation' is indistinguishable from 'Situation-Temporal' except
for the possible inclusion in 'Situation' of abstract situations
not enclosed in a time interval. The term 'Situation' has been
interpreted in COSMO as strictly temporal, and the more abstract things that
resenble situations have been aggregated under 'AbstractEvent'.
Cyc ('Situtation') A subcollection of both #$IntangibleIndividual and
#$TemporalThing. #$Situation subsumes #$Event and
#$StaticSituation. Each instance of #$Situation is a state
or event consisting of one or more objects having certain
properties, or bearing certain relations to each other.
OPENCYC 1: (Situation-Temporal) MAY 23, 2002
A subcollection of both #$Situation and #$TemporalThing. #$Situation-Temporal
is the collection of all instances of #$Situation that have duration or other temporal
properties . Thus, #$Situation-Temporal subsumes #$Event and #$StaticSituation,
as well as some other specializations of #$Situation. It does _not_ subsume any
specializations of #$Situation that have atemporal instances.
DOLCE: Perdurants (AKA occurrences) comprise what are variously called events,
processes, phenomena, activities and states. They can have temporal parts or
spatial parts. For instance, the first movement of (an execution of) a symphony
is a temporal part of the symphony. On the other hand, the play performed by
the left side of the orchestra is a spatial part. In both cases, these parts
are occurrences themselves. We assume that objects cannot be parts of
occurrences, but rather they participate in them. Perdurants extend in time
by accumulating different temporal parts, so that, at any time they are present,
they are only partially present, in the sense that some of their proper
temporal parts (e.g., their previous or future phases) may be not present.
E.g., the piece of paper you are reading now is wholly present, while some
temporal parts of your reading are not present yet, or any more. Philosophers
say that endurants are entities that are in time, while lacking temporal parts
(so to speak, all their parts flow with them in time). Perdurants, on the contrary,
are entities that happen in time, and can have temporal parts (all their parts
are fixed in time).
A synonym of 'SituationProcessEventOrState'.
COSMO Note: Situation is included for compatibility with OpenCyc. It is
indistinguishable from 'SituationProcessEventOrState', i.e. it
subsumes all things that happen, or states that exist, whether
completed or ongoing.
Situation is deprecated in COSMO because of a history of use
in different senses. See the different categories under
'SituationProcessEventOrState'.
bd88c84b-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Each Event in COSMO is a Group representing the changes to the
properties (attributes and relations) of one or more objects over some
interval of time, and containing the component elements:
(1) InstantaneousState at the starting time
(2) InstantaneousState at the Ending time
(3) The FunctionalProcess that describes the intermediate states
between the starting and ending times.
**Informally**, a state,process, or event in COSMO is interpreted as the set of
*values* of some 'fluents' (attributes or relations that may change over time),
but the actual *formal* representation is a Group in which the group elements
are the *LinguisticAssertions* specifying the values of the fluents
pertaining to some Group of Objects. Each LinguisticAssertion specifies
the value at some time point (or time interval). The differences in
State, Process,and Event are:
State: The Group of Assertions that hold at one time point (InstantaneousState),
or persist without change of value over some contiguous interval
of time (PersistentState). No value can chage within a State.
FunctionalProcess: The full set of LinguisticAssertions specifying the values of
fluents at each time point or smaller TimeInterval
within a TimeInterval in which the Process is defined. The set of
LinguisticAssertions relate times to values,and in that respect is
analogous to a mathematical function. In analogy to a mathematical
function, one can derive a 'rate' for a Process (in cases where
the values are quantified) by taking the ratio of (difference in
value) to (difference in time) for any TimeInterval in which a change
of value is specified. This rate may change from time to time
during a FunctionalProcess.
Event: focuses on the values of the fluents at the beginning and ending of some
TimeInterval, but also includes the FunctionalProcess that specifies
the fluent values at times between the beginning and ending. Since the
focus of an Event is on the change from one time point to the next,
one cannot specify a 'rate' in the same sense as for a FunctionalProcess,
where the rate may change many times during the FunctionalProcess.
For an Event, one can derive a single 'rate' value that specifies the overall
ratio of change of fluent value to time, between the beginning
and ending points, and for an Event, only one such 'rate' can be
defined.
Although logically included in each Event are the starting and ending times,
(see relations hasStartingTimePoint and hasEndingTimePoint), these may not be
known, and creating an instance of Event does not require specifying those
times if not known.
NOTE that the FunctionalProcess which is a component of the Event *contains*
all of the elements contained in the Event, in that it contains itself,
and also contains the states at the beginning and end. While *containing* all of
those elements, however, it is nevertheless a distinctly different concept,
since the 'Event' specifically selects out of the FunctionalProcess the
beginning and ending states as characteristic of the Event. The Event
is not a FunctionalProcess, but *contains* a FunctionalProcess as a
component element. A FunctionalProcess can be derived from an Event, and
an Event can be derived from a FunctionalProcess that is defined over
some interval of time. A 'FunctionalProcess' that has only one time point
in it also represents a special kind of Event, the limiting case
of an InstantaneousState. NOTE also that an instance of FunctionalProcess
that is defined by a mathematical function relating properties to time
must have associated with it some time interval during which it is asserted to
be valid, in order to be an instance.
NOTE also that this representation of Event does not resemble a
perdurantist 'history' which focuses on some region of space-time.
Regions of space-time are represented as 'SpatiotemporalRegion' in
COSMO, but the only spatial regions of relevance to an Event are those
that can be derived from the locations of the Objects that participate
in an Event. The significant conceptual components of an Event are the
properties ('fluents') of the Objects that participate in the Event,
and insofar as the locations of the Objects may be, but are not necessarily,
represented in the Event, those locations may be significant, but except in
Events solely depicting motion, the locations are incidental rather than central
to the changes represented by the Event.
Each Event represents one or more changes that occur to
the attributes or relations ('fluents') of one or more objects during
some defined interval of time (or for abstract Events, within some
interval on the dimension of causality); the net changes are
represented by the state at the beginning of the event and the state at the
end of the Event. In the physical world, real Events typically
have multiple intermediate stages, and nothing occurs instantaneously,
but some non-physical Events such as a change of title for a Person may
occur at a precise moment by prior arrangement.
The representation of intermediate stages of an Event can be explicit, with the
included events related to the whole event by the 'hasSubEvent' relation or
'hasTemporalPart' relation. The first can be more specific about one
of serveral fluents that vary during an event. The temporal part relation
between Events must relate a subevent that includes alll of the fluents
represented in the whole Event.
Each Event includes implicitly a Process that specifies the course of each
fluent between the start and end times. At this point (v0.39) there is
no explicit representation of the included Process, but each FunctionalProcess
will, if represented explicitly, have an associate time granularity indicating
the minimal intervals over which the change in the fluents are represented.
The ize of the granularity intervals during which FunctionalProcess states
are represented will depends on the discretion of the ontologist for the
pruposes of the representation.
COSMO note: note that in some ontologies (and situation logics) , 'Event'
is used to refer to a change in state that is considered instantaneous.
In COSMO, suchan 'Event' is a subtype of the more general event, which is a
change in state that occurs over some interval of time (which,
for instantaneous changes would be a zero-length time interval).
NOTE also that for some Events, such as cyclic Events, merely representing
the starting and ending states - which may be identical - loses the
whole meaning of the Event; so intermediate states must also be
represented in some manner to provide meaning to the Event.
Called: Event(Cyc); Process(SUMO); event(DOLCE); Processual(SPAN-BFO)
************ NOTE on BFO 'Process' ******************************
COSMO: BFO the Type most closely representing COSMO 'Event'
is 'Process', so that BFO type is made synonymous with
''Event'. BFO makes teh distinction between 'Fiat' events
(FiatProcessPart = parts of events) and complete events. This Type
represents the complete Event with well-defined beginnings and ends. The
FiatProcessPart event is included for compatibility, though not yet used.
BFO ('Process') Definition: A processual entity that is a maximally
connected spatio-temporal whole and has bona fide beginnings and endings
corresponding to real discontinuities.
BFO Examples: the life of an organism, the process of sleeping,
the process of cell-division
************ NOTE on BFO 'Process' ******************************
Cyc comment: An important specialization of #$Situation and
thus also of #$IntangibleIndividual and
#$TemporallyExistingThing (qq.v). Each instance of #$Event
is a dynamic situation in which the state of the world
changes; each instance is something one would say happens .
Events are intangible because they are changes per se, not
tangible objects that effect and undergo changes. Notable
specializations of #$Event include #$Event-Localized,
#$PhysicalEvent, #$Action, and #$GeneralizedTransfer.
#$Events should not be confused with #$TimeIntervals (q.v.).
The temporal bounds of events are delineated by time
intervals, but in contrast to many events time intervals
have no spatial location or extent.
COSMO note: 'Event' was merged with Cyc 'PhysicalEvent' and
Cyc 'Event-Localized'
The Cyc 'StrictlyMentalEvent' is classified as a PhysicalEvent
in COSMO.
Cyc: (PhysicalEvent') A specialization of #$Event-Localized. Each
instance of #$PhysicalEvent is a spatially localized event
involving one or more physical objects or stuffs.
#$PhysicalEvents typically involve interaction among
#$PartiallyTangibles. But note that a physical event might
consist in the creation, destruction, movement, or a change
in some physical feature of a single salient physical
object. (See #$PhysicalCreationEvent,
#$PhysicalDestructionEvent, #$MovementEvent, and
#$IntrinsicStateChangeEvent.) For a contrasting (though not
necessarily disjoint) collection, see #$StrictlyMentalEvent.
For events that have both physical and mental components,
see the collection #$CompositePhysicalAndMentalEvent.
Cyc ('Event-Localized'): A specialization of #$Event.
#$Event-Localized is
the collection of all events that occur at a specific
location in space. Notable specializations of
#$Event-Localized include #$PhysicalEvent and #$AnimalActivity.
bd58800d-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
hadParticipant relates an Event to the
Objects whose properties and relations ('fluents') are affected
by the Event, or who participate as causative agents. This
is the most general 'case' relation that is conceptual rather
than strictly grammatical. It is in the past tense to emphaisze
that it is a complete Event, not a Process, that is being
related to its participants.
Participants include the inputs and outputs of Events that
are creation or destruction events. See, for example,
'produced'.
COSMO note: Objects may 'participate' in an Event without being a
'patient', for example in a BeliefState the Belief
involved is a participant in the Event, but the
properties of the belief involved are not among the
fluents that ate affected by the Event. Rather, in that
case, the relationship between the Agent and the belief is the
fluent.
wasUsedAsInstrumentInEvent specifies that
a particular physical object was used as an instrument in
some event. An Event may have more than one instrument
used during its occurrence. The instrument will
in general not be consumed by its use, but this
is a very broad relation and the instrument may be
changed by its use. For example, a bucket of water
used to douse a fire will be an instrument in the
event of dousing the fire - the water will be changed,
though it will not be chemically transformed. Subrelations
may describe more specific instrument usages. It is in the
past tense, as Events in COSMO are considered as bounded
in time, and must be in the past after the end point.
SUMO has a relation called simply 'instrument' which
would be the inverse of this relation:
SUMO (instrument ?EVENT ?TOOL) means that ?TOOL
is used by an agent in bringing about ?EVENT and that ?TOOL is not
changed by ?EVENT. For example, the key is an instrument in the
following proposition: The key opened the door. Note that instrument
and resource cannot be satisfied by the same ordered pair.
'wasFacilitatedByInstrument' relates an instrument used in an Event to the
Event in which is was used. It is the inverse of 'wasUsedAsInstrumentInEvent'.
There may be more than one instrument used in an Event. To say that an
Event was 'facilitated' does not require that the Event would not
have been possible without the instrument.
In SUMO a similar relation is called 'instrument'
SUMO: (instrument ?EVENT ?TOOL) means that ?TOOL
is used by an agent in bringing about ?EVENT and that ?TOOL is not
changed by ?EVENT. For example, the key is an instrument in the
following proposition: The key opened the door. Note that instrument
and resource cannot be satisfied by the same ordered pair.
In Cyc a similar relation is called 'deviceUsed'
Cyc: The predicate #$deviceUsed relates an event to a
device used in that event. (#$deviceUsed EVENT OBJECT) means
that the #$PhysicalDevice OBJECT plays an instrumental role
in the #$Event EVENT (see the more generalized predicate
#$instrument-Generic), OBJECT is intentionally used in
EVENT, and standardly (for example, in the
#$HumanActivitiesMt) OBJECT's role in EVENT is
consistent with the object's #$primaryFunction.
'affectsObject' points from an
Event to one of the objects that participated in
the Event, and (may have) had one of its
properties changed. The Object pointed to must be one
whose Proerty(ies) are one of the 'fluents' that is a
value of the FuntionalProcess that results in the Event.
This relation captures the notion of a 'patient' in the usual
Event representations, being the notion of something that was 'acted on'
in an Event. In COSMO it is not necessary that the
object of this relation actually have some property
changed - something may be 'touched' in an event
and fulfill the role of the thing 'acted on'
without any of its perceptible properties actually
being changed.
For static events, representing a state continuing unchanged
over some period of time, the Object(s) that is 'affected' by
the Event is the Object(s) whose properties ('fluents') are
unchanged in that interval, which will be the Objects whose
state the ontologist intends to describe with that
Event representation.
wasPerformedByAgent points from an
Action to the Agent that performed that
Action. It is in the past tense, as Events in
COSMO are considered as bounded in time, and
must be in the past after the end point.
This 'perform' relation includes the 'experiencer'
case role for mental events.
'wasExperiencedBy' points from a
MentalEvent to the CognitiveAgent that performed (experienced) that
Event. It is in the past tense, as Events in
COSMO are considered as bounded in time, and
must be in the past after the end point.
isTypicallyPerformedAt relates an Action type
to the location type where it commonly occurs,
or with which it is commonly associated, as in
Baseball being played on a baseballField. But this
does not require even that a majority of such
events occur there, just that there is a salient
association of the event with the place..
produced relates something produced in an Event to the
Event that produced it. It is the inverse of 'isTheProductOf'.
In Cyc, called 'outputs'.
Cyc: This predicate relates a particular creation or
destruction event to any of its outputs . (#$outputs EVENT
OBJECT) means that OBJECT is an output of EVENT. That is,
OBJECT is either created/produced as a result of EVENT (see
the specializations #$outputsCreated, #$products,
#$byProducts) or something left after another thing was
destroyed in EVENT (see the specialization
#$outputsRemaining). For example, silicon chips are both
#$outputsCreated in and #$products of a chip manufacturing
process, while a hunk of scrap metal is an
#$outputsRemaining after a car is put through a crusher.
When appropriate, instead of using #$outputs, use one of its
specializations (of which those mentioned above are the nearest).
A specialization of #$PhysicalEvent. Each
instance of #$Accident is an event in which something
unplanned and unintended happens. Example instances of this
collection are #$ChernobylAccident and #$ColumbiaAccident.
bd58a26f-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of #$Situation. Each instance of
#$MentalSituation is a mental situation such as a person
seeing the color red, or believing that his enemies control
the CIA, or desiring that Fidel Castro shave his beard. An
important subcollection of this collection is
#$AtLeastPartiallyMentalEvent whice is the collection of
mental situations that are events, such as thinking about
something or tasting something. Other instances of
#$MentalSituation are more long-standing and stable, and
hence also instances of #$StaticSituation, e.g., believing
something, or having some goal. Cf. #$MentalSituationFn.
bee2989e-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
NOTE: name changed in COSMO. In Cyc this is
'AtLeastPartiallyMentalEvent'.
Cyc: A collection of events. Each instance of
#$AtLeastPartiallyMentalEvent is an event involving the
mental functions of a participant or group of participants
(see #$actors) in that event. The collection includes such
things as dreaming, perceiving, sensing, theorizing about
something, having a realization, making a decision, building
something, designing something, and consciously carrying out
a task. Note that the above list includes both purposeful
events and non-purposeful events that involve mental
functions. Note also that any event that has a mental
component is also an instance of this collection, so that
events like preparing lunch would be classified as instances
of #$AtLeastPartiallyMentalEvent. In entering knowledge, it
is almost always possible and preferable to use one of the
specializations of #$AtLeastPartiallyMentalEvent. If an
event seems mostly mental in nature, modulo neurons firing
and related brain activity, use #$StrictlyMentalEvent or one
of its specializations. If it essentially involves both
mental and physical activity, see
#$CompositePhysicalAndMentalEvent or
#$PurposefulPhysicalAction. For mental events that are
intentionally and purposefully performed, see the
specialization #$PurposefulMentalActivity.
COSMO note: this appears to be similar to SUMO 'PsychologicalProcess',
which is a subtype of Event.
SUMO: A BiologicalProcess which takes place in
the mind or brain of an Organism and which may be manifested in the behavior
of the Organism.
bd588615-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
hasSubEvent relates one Event to another,
smaller Event included in the first. This is a
'part' relation specific for Events. The included Event may
only represent some of the fluents represented in the
whole event, or may represent all of the fluents in some
time interval shorter than the time interfval of the whole event.
In the latter case, the relation 'hasTemporalPart' could also
be used.
This relation can be used to relate individual Events, or can be used
to specify that some Type of Event must have another Type of
Event as a component.
COSMO note: DOLCE distinguishes Events that have temporal parts with
similar character, i.e. the same sort of thing occurs throughout
the tie interval of the Event. In OpenCyc, such 'homogeneous' events
are represented using 'StuffType' metaclasses. A special subclass
is the 'State' where nothing happens over some time interval.
'State' is an important concept in PSL and situation calculus.
DOLCE: An occurrence-type is stative or eventive according to whether
it holds of the mereological sum of two of its instances, i.e.
if it is cumulative or not.
A sitting occurrence is stative since the sum of two sittings is still a
sitting occurrence.
A PersistentState is an Event
in which all relevant attributes or relations
(any one or more 'fluents' in PSL) remains constant over some time interval.
A special limiting subtype would be an InstaneousState, for which
the time interval is of zero duration.
COSMO note: DOLCE has a convoluted description of
what a 'State' is. For COSMO, a PersistentState (what appears to be
a 'State' in DOLCE) it is very simply an Event
in which nothing changes over some interval of time
- - i.e. nothing changes that the knowledge
enterer considers significant for her/his purposes. This can be
viewed as the limiting case of an Event, in which so little
of significance happens that it is not worth mentioning.
DOLCE: Within stative occurrences, we distinguish between
states and processes according to homeomericity: sitting is
classified as a state but running is classified as a process,
since there are (very short) temporal parts of a running that
are not themselves runnings.In general, states differ from situations
because they are not assumed to have a description from which they depend.
They can be sequenced by some course, but they do not require a
description as a unifying criterion.On the other hand, at any time,
one can conceive a description that asserts the constraints by which
a state of a certian type is such, and in this case, it becomes
a situation.Since the decision of designing an explicit description
that unifies a perdurant depends on context, task, interest,
application, etc., when aligning an ontology to DLP, there can be
indecision on where to align a state-oriented class.
For example, in the WordNet alignment, we have decided to put only
some physical states under 'state', e.g. 'turgor', in order to
stress the social orientedness of DLP. But whereas we need
to talk explicitly of the criteria by which we conceive turgor states,
these will be put under 'situation'.Similar considerations are made for
the other types of perdurants in DOLCE.A different notion of event
(dealing with change) is currently investigated for further developments:
being 'achievement', 'accomplishment', 'state', 'event', etc. can
be also considered 'aspects' of processes or of parts of them. For example, the same process 'rock erosion in the Sinni valley' can be conceptualized as an accomplishment (what has brought the current state that e.g. we are trying to explain), as an achievement (the erosion process as the result of a previous accomplishment), as a state (if we collapse the time interval of the erosion into a time point), or as an event (what has changed our focus from a state to another).In the erosion case, we could have good motivations to shift from one aspect to another: a) causation focus, b) effectual focus, c) condensation d) transition (causality).If we want to consider all the aspects of a process together, we need to postulate a unifying descriptive set of criteria (i.e. a 'description'), according to which that process is circumstantiated in a 'situation'. The different aspects will arise as a parts of a same situation.
'State' is an ambiguous term with at least two frequently used
but different meanings; it is synonymous with two terms:
(1) PersistentState: A state of affairs that persists over some period
of time is what is most commonly referred to as a 'state',
if one includes the special case where the interval is zero,
i.e. the 'state' is the state at a particular moment.
(2) A Nation, or the first administrative subdivision of a Nation..
Therefore 'State' is a potentially onfusing and deprecated term in COSMO and
appears only in the list of Synonyms.
COSMO note: This concept is similar to
DOLCE 'Stative' but we make it temporarily (v0.2) a
parent class of the DOLCE concept.
Cyc: A specialization of #$Situation. Each instance of
#$StaticSituation is a state of affairs between two or more
things, persisting statically over some time interval.
Instances of #$StaticSituation always have a temporal
extent, and they usually have a tangible and spatial extent.
As an example, consider the situation of Bill Clinton
sitting in his easy chair on the evening of 7/4/96. There
are participant objects such as Bill and the chair, there
are relationships such as the seat of the chair supporting
his bottom and his weight being off his feet, etc. In any
#$StaticSituation, for the participants in that situation,
there is some significant or focal relationship between them
which does not change. In the most typical cases, there is
no important change whatsoever, e.g. someone sitting would
be such a #$StaticSituation. But some things represented as
#$StaticSituations can alternatively be represented as
#$Events. For example, a situation in which geese were
flying in a flock would be static (the flock-like spatial
relationship between the geese would be retained) but it
would also be dynamic in that the geese were moving, so
either representation could be chosen depending on the context.
be1e537c-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The class of reified relationships between two
agents. Such relationships exist in time and change over
time, so #$SomethingExisting is an allgenls.
bd66e328-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Called 'DualObjectProcess' in SUMO.
SUMO: Any Process that requires two, nonidentical
patients.
A very general concept, aggregating all
the FunctionalProcesses that can be described as
'Development'. This is the actual process of
something developing, not a procedure or plan or protocol
for development of something. Development can be
natural, as in development of an embryo, or a human
actiity, such as development of a language or
culture.
A FunctionalProcess corresponds to the linguistic intuition
of something happening at some point in time, rather than something that
has happened in some interval of time, which is an Event. Intuitively,
it may be considered as the time derivative of an Event: a Process
occurring over some interval of time gives rise to an Event, which
is a change (or series of changes) in the properties of some
Objects during some interval of Time. Every FunctionalProcess is
intimately associated with some Event as one of the comonents of that
Event (see 'Event').
Formally, a FunctionalProcess is a Group consisting of ordered pairs,
each ordered pair having one element which is an InstantaneousState at
some time point and the second element being the TimePoint at which that state
holds. Each InstantaneousState contains the Group of values of the Fluents that
hold at that TimePoint.
Thus if, at some point in time, someone is Running, one can say that
a Running process exists at that point, and that person is a participant in the process.
The 'existence' of an instance of Process at some time point implies that
some Event has taken place (or is taking place) in the time interval
including that time point, and vice-versa, each Event implies existence
of some corresponding FunctionalProcess at every time point during the
interval between the beginning and end of the Event (**but see next paragraph**).
But for linguistic purposes, it may be more convenient to represent
just the Event or just the FunctionalProcess, and not explicitly represent the
corresponding entity, which is nevertheless implied.
The list of States over time has some similarity to a
ValueTimeEntry, though the former relates the state
assertions themselves, rather than the values.
**It is possible for a FunctionalProcess to be discontinuous, such as an 'eating'
process during which one is not actually ingesting anything - perhaps reading
a paper in the intervals between taking bites of a meal; or a 'going to school'
process during which one sleeps, watches television, etc., other than actually being
in the school or studying. One may formally say that the process continues
int the intervals when the relevant fluents are not changing, but that
the intervals between actual progression of the process each consists of
a null process which is part of the whole process, and give rise to null events which
are parts of the whole event.**
The term 'process' has been often used to refer to Procedures,
(see 'Procedure') which are specifications for some sequence of actions
that accomplish a goal. That is a distinct, though somewhat related
concept.
In some ontologies, (such as Cyc) a 'process' is a type of Event which has
some uniform character throughout the Event. Because of the variant usage,
the bare term 'process' is not used in this ontology to avoid confusion.
Thus this base Type is called 'FunctionalProcess' to specifically refer to
its similarity to a mathematical function. It resembles a mathematical
function in certain respects: a FunctionalProcess can be said to describe
the state of some system as a function of time. Like a function,
a FunctionalProcess can have properties, and one important property will
be the Rate at which the represented change is occurring.
Most ontologies deal with Events, and ignore Processes of this type.
For representing certain linguistic phrases, however, this type is better
suited than the Event type. Most FunctionalProcesses are not
represented explicitly in COSMO at version 0.3, but when needed
may be generated by a function (not yet defined) that takes an
Event and returns the Process that is operating to generate that Event.
One issue not yet dealt with in COSMO v0.3 is whether a function that can
generate a Process from the corresponding Event can handle Events
whose definition specifies more than one Fluent as changing during the
Event. In such cases, to have a clear relation, the multiple fluents
must be ordered similarly in the representation of the Event
and its corresponding FunctionalProcess.
hasCorrespondingProcess relates an Event (or eventType) to
the FunctionalProcess (or ProcessType) which gives rise to the Event
over some interval of time (or more abstractly, some interval
on the dimension of causality). NOTE that this relation can
be used at either the instance or Type level, and can be used in
a mixed mode, to specify that a particular Event was produced by
a particular Type of Process. This relation is not
yet elaborated in COSMO v0.3, and serves mostly as a placeholder
to clarify (somewhat) the relation between Event and FunctionalProcess..
OccupationType is a metaclass used
as the Type restriction on certain relations that
pertain to Occupations, such as
'isTheOccupationOfa' and 'practicesOccupation'.
NOTE that this must not be used as the Type of people
who have ocupations. For that, use 'OccupationalRoleType'.
OccupationalRoleType is a metaclass used
as the Type restriction on certain relations that
pertain to Types describing people in occupational roles,
such as 'Nurse', 'Firefighter'..
An Occupation is a type of activity that a person
does, typically to earn money or something of equivalent value.
People who don't need the money and do the activity for the satisfaction still
are practicing an occupation. This is the Type whose subtpes
will correspond to the various occupations that people do, such
as 'Nursing' or 'Accounting'. Because some occupations are
in common speech named in the same manner as the term describing the person who
has that occupation (Electrician), the names used here may
seem unusual, so as to avoid confusion with the person having the
occupation.
An Occupation is related to the PersonWithOccupation
practicesOccupation relates a Person with
and Occupation - or its Type - to an occupation, which is
a Type.
An Event in which someone provides Nursing
care to another person. The provider is not necessarily
a licensed RN, but this represents someone working in a
professional capacity, for some compensation.
cyc: The field and occupation of #$Nursing,
encompassing all the skills and tasks that #$Nurses do at work.
bd58cb6b-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The field and occupation of #$Nursing,
encompassing all the skills and tasks that #$Nurses do at work.
bd58cb6b-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
EconomicDevelopment is the process that gives rise to
an EconomicImprovementEvent.
A PhysicalProcess is a FunctionalProcess
(not an Event) in which at least one PhysicalObject is a
participant.
A DiseaseProcess is a PhysicalProcess (not an Event)
which, over some period of time, results in an AilmentCondition
(i.e. illness, sickness, disease), which is a PersistentState that has
a starting and ending point in time.
An Event in which some Agent plays a causative role.
NOTE that an Agent may cause an action indirectly and with a
time delay, via some device - and that action, controlled largely
by the device, is still considered as an Action of that Agent in COSMO.
This means that the 'action' set in motion by an Agent may continue
even after the death of the Agent. Thus, the fire in an oil burner,
being controlled by the Agent that controls the oil burner, is considered
as an Action here, even though the burner continues for a long time automatically.
The Action in such cases of indirect and delayed effects extends from the
time at which the Agent started the action until the end of the time
when the predictable immediate consequences occur.
At some point it will probably be worthwhile distinguishing
the Action of setting a Device from the Events controlled by the
device, but as of v0.43 that distinction is not encoded.
For Actions directly including only the immediate motion of an animal
and its direct, almost simultaneous consequences, use 'AnimalActivity'.
NOTE that a MentalEvent such as a feeling or Emotion is also
considered an Action,as it is performed by a CognitiveAgent.
In different ontologies, the same notion has different names:
Action(Cyc) IntentionalProcess (SUMO) action(DOLCE) Activity(ISO15926).
NOTE: in COSMO we classify an 'Experience' as a subtype of
'Action' to indicate that the focus of the subject is an
Agent, even though no Events external to the Agent may
be caused by the Experience.
Cyc comment: The collection of #$Events (q.v.) that are carried
out by some doer (see #$doneBy). Instances of #$Action
include any event in which one or more actors effect some
change in the (tangible or intangible) state of the world,
typically by an expenditure of effort or energy. Note that
it is not required that any tangible object be moved,
changed, produced, or destroyed for an action to occur; the
effects of an action might be intangible (such as a change
in a bank balance or the intimidation of a subordinate).
Note also that the doer of an action, though typically an
#$Agent (q.v.), need not be (e.g. a falling rock that dents
a car's roof). Depending upon the context, doers of
actions might be animate or inanimate, conscious or
nonconscious. For actions that are intentional, see
#$PurposefulAction and #$performedBy.
SUMO: A 'Process' that has a specific purpose for
the 'CognitiveAgent' who performs it.
DOLCE: A Perdurant that exemplifies the intentionality of an agent.
Could it be aborted, incomplete, mislead, while remaining a (potential)
accomplishment ... The point here is that having a result depends on a method,
then an action remains an action under incomplete results. As a matter of fact,
if we neutralize intentionality, a purely topological, post-hoc view is
at odds with the notion of incomplete accomplishments.
bd58a841-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A common term, also used in ISO15926, for
'Action'.
This is the collection of all activities which are
performed in a state of consciousness, that is, the animal
performing the action is not sleeping, in a coma, or
otherwise unconscious.
a8eb2b06-d712-41d6-8443-9a24c2022ade
A specialization of both #$Action and
#$AtLeastPartiallyMentalEvent. Each instance of
#$PurposefulAction is an action consciously, volitionally,
and purposefully done by (see #$performedBy) at least one actor.
In SUMO, equivalent to 'IntentionalProcess'.
SUMO: A Process (Event) that has a specific purpose for
the CognitiveAgent who performs it.
bd589e3f-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
SUMO: Processes which involve altering an internal property of an Object, e.g. the shape of the Object, its coloring, its structure, etc. Processes that are not instances of this class include
changes that only affect the relationship to other objects, e.g. changes in spatial or temporal location.
hadTransferredItem relates a GeneralizedTransfer event to
the thing transferred during the Event. Note that
more than one thing may be transferred in an
Event, and in particular each Transaction has
at least two things transferred.
This is a Case role for the GeneralizedTransfer event, which includes
specializations such as Communication or property transfer.
A specialization of #$Event. Each instance of
#$GeneralizedTransfer is an event in which something
(tangible or intangible) is transferred from one
'place' to another. #$GeneralizedTransfer includes
changes in physical location, in ownership or possession,
transfer of information, and propagation of wave phenomena
through space. See also the related predicate
#$transferredThing, and the specializations of this collection.
bd588eb6-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of #$GeneralizedTransfer. Each
instance of #$InformationTransferEvent is an event in which
information is transferred from a source
(#$informationOrigin) to one or more destinations
(#$informationDestination), where the source and the various
destinations are either intelligent agents or
#$InformationBearingThings (IBTs). Examples include reading
a book (transfer of information from the book to the
reader), saying something to someone (transfer of
information from the speaker to the listener), machine
translation (transfer of information from an encoded IBT in
the source language to an encoded IBT in the target
language), OCR scanning (transfer of information from a
visual information source to another IBT in a different
format), carving initials in a tree (transfer of information
from an agent to an IBT), and making a speech (transfer of
information from an agent to other agents). See also the
specialization #$InformationTransferPhysicalEvent.
NOTE that information can be transferred from a person's mind
to a piece of paper, so the destination of the transfer
does not have to be an IntelligentAgent, and an InformationTransfer
does not have to be a 'Communication'.
COSMO note; why is information transfer not always a PhysicalEvent
in Cyc see 'InformationTransferPhysicalEvent'?
Perhaps so that spirit communication can be included?
In SUMO the appproximate equivalent of 'ContentBearingProcess'.
SUMO: ('ContentBearingProcess') Any Process, for example
ManualHumanLanguage, which may contain a Proposition.
bd589f07-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An ImageCaptureEvent.is an InformationTransferEvent
in which shape information about some physical object(s) is
transferred from the object(s) to a recording medium, under
the control of a CognitiveAgent. The result of an
ImageCaptureEvent is to create both a CapturedImage (an
abstract image) and also its physical representation. Although
the abstract CapturedImage may be the created object of
greatest interest (reproduced many times), its representation
must exist on some physical recording medium.
An Action in which one IntelligentAgent
accepts an offer made by another IntelligentAgent.
The acceptance creates an Agrement, which is not necessarily
formal and not necessarily a legal contract.
Linguistically this Action may be realized by phrases like:
'X agreed to do A'
'X accepted Tom's offer'
'X told Tom he would do what he suggested'.
In Cyc named 'Accept'.
Cyc: This is the illocutionary force associated with
communication acts of acceptance.
bdf5bf03-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of both
#$AtLeastPartiallyMentalEvent and
#$IntentionalMentalSituation (qq.v.). This is the
collection of (at least partially) mental events whose
instances are characterized by intentionality: they are of
or about some thing external to themselves. Thoughts and
acts of perception are two common types of intentional
mental events. Thus, a particular act of thinking about the
Eiffel Tower and a particular act of seeing the Eiffel Tower
are both intentional mental events, each having (at least)
the Eiffel Tower as their object. Any thing whatsoever can
in principle be the object of an intentional mental event: I
can think about a certain physical object, an #$Event, a
#$Relation, an attribute, a #$Proposition, a mental state
(my own or another's), a set, a #$Collection, or
anything else. Mental events that are _not_ intentional,
and thus not in this collection, include non-localized pain
experiences, and at least some instances of
#$ExperiencingEmotion (q.v.). Note that, although they are
indirectly related (see e.g. #$PurposefulMentalActivity),
the sense of intentional described above is not to be
confused with its other sense as an antonym of accidental .
Nor is it to be confused with the logico-semantic concept of
_intensional_ meaning. See also #$IntentionalMentalState,
#$objectOfMentalSituation, and #$thinksAbout.
bfde8dd4-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The intersection of #$StrictlyMentalEvent and
#$PurposefulAction, and also a specialization of
#$IntentionalMentalEvent. Each instance of this collection
is an event involving intentional mental activity on the
part of at least one performer (see #$performedBy).
Solving a math problem (cf. #$DoingMath), planning an attack
and performing a thought experiment (cf.
#$ThoughtExperimenting) are all examples of
#$PurposefulMentalActivity. However, daydreaming or having
undesired obsessive thoughts are not examples. A borderline
example might be arriving at the solution to a math problem
in one's sleep after intentionally working on the
problem during the previous day.
c14de554-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The action consisting of composing (creating) an
AbstractText, which may or may not consist of creating a
symbolic text on some medium; the composition may be purely
mental. For the physcal text creation, see 'Writing'. See
also Thinking..
A specialization of both #$SingleDoerAction and
#$InformationTransferPhysicalEvent. Each instance of
#$Perceiving is an event in which an agent (an instance of
#$PerceptualAgent) acquires information through the exercise
of its senses.
In SUMO called 'Perception'
SUMO Sensing some aspect of the material world.
Note that the agent of this sensing is assumed to be an Animal.
bd58c31c-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The SUMO term for the Cyc 'Perceiving'.
The collection of
#$CompositePhysicalAndMentalEvents that are performed
purposively (see #$performedBy). This collection is the
collection-intersection of #$PurposefulAction and
#$CompositePhysicalAndMentalEvent. Since each instance of
#$PurposefulPhysicalAction is also an instance of
#$CompositePhysicalAndMentalEvent, each instance has both a
mental and a physical component. Driving a car would be an
instance of #$PurposefulPhysicalAction since it involves
mental and physical functioning on the part of the
performing agent and is done purposively. Crashing a car,
conversely, would not normally be an instance (unless the
driver purposefully caused the crash).
beb39562-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of both #$Action (q.v.) and
#$Event-Localized. Every instance of #$AnimateActivity is a
spatially-localized action, each of whose doers (see
#$doneBy and #$animateDoers) is either a
#$BiologicalLivingObject or a group of BLOs (i.e. a #$Group
all of whose members are BLOs). Specializations of this
collection include #$AnimalActivity, #$BiologicalEvent,
and #$PhysiologicalProcess.
SUMO A normal process of an Organism
or part of an Organism.
31d87aae-5580-41d7-8025-c8e9f7c3ffca
A specialization of #$Action. Each instance of
#$AnimalActivity is a spatially-localized action, each of
whose doers (see #$doneBy) is either an #$Animal or a
group of animals (i.e. a #$Group all of whose members are #$Animals).
bd588daa-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The act of gaining knowledge or awareness of a
particular action.
bd5ba30b-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A collection of instances of
#$LawEnforcementEvent: specifically, the collection of all
formal criminal investigations carried out by a law
enforcement agency of some type. All include as a
#$subEvents some instance of #$CrimeDetectionActivity. The
scope of an instance of #$CriminalInvestigation is broader
than just the activities carried out to detect the crime,
however: it also includes the effort to identify and
prosecute the perpetrator, the bureacratic procedures that
accompany the investigation, and the actual arrest of the
perpetrator, in cases where the investigation culminates in such.
bde712c9-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Enforcing or monitoring a proposition to be true.
If it is violated, the performer should perform some action.
This task is performed by #$FlightAttendant, LifeGuard, and
#$SecurityGuard. This unit may have a slot to specify what
proposition is enforced. But we are not creating it at this stage.
bd58c508-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The collection of all events performed with the
purpose of enforcing laws, that are performed by people
officially charged with this this duty. Includes most
activities of law enforcement officials (such as police)
including detection of crime, identification of offenders,
and arrests.
bd5dfdf4-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The collection of all instances of
#$TakingAPersonPrisoner which constitute legally sanctioned
arrests by law enforcement officers.
6d7f1286-20cd-11d6-8000-0090279a5907
An instance of #$PersonTypeByOccupation, and a
specialization of #$PersonWithOccupation. Each instance of
#$LawEnforcementOfficer is a person whose job is to detect,
stop, and/or punish people engaged in illegal activities.
The collection #$LawEnforcementOfficer includes members of
local, state, and special police (e.g., transit police)
forces, as well as federal agents (e.g., members of border
patrols, national security agents). Consequently, a given
instance of #$LawEnforcementOfficer typically also belongs
to one of the following collections: #$StateEmployee,
#$LocalGovernmentEmployee, or #$NationalGovernmentEmployee
(see #$PublicSectorEmployee).
bd58e004-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A Behavior is a type of AnimalActivity that
may be repeated at more or less frequent intervals, and
has a pattern sufficiently characteristic of the
animal to be called a 'behavior' in normal speech.
A single isolated action would not be a 'Behavior',
but a Behavior does not hae to be performed frequently.
A Practice is a Behavior that occurs
with sufficient frequency to constitute a distinguishing
characteristic for a person or group of people. It should
be more frequent than other actions considered as
'Behavior', but the frequency criterion is vague.
'Pactice' differs from 'GroupPractice' in that a
'Practice' can be performed by an individual, even
though it is not a 'Habit'.
A Habit is a Behavior of an individual
person that is an acquired pattern of actions, and is
repeated often enough to distinguish that behavior
from the more common forms of behavior in that culture
at that time. A repeated action that is common among
a community (even if not common worldwide) due to social
norms, rather than for individual preference, would be
a 'Custom', not a 'Habit'.
A GroupPractice is a type of Practice
practiced commonly by or within a Group. It may be a
behavior of an individual, distinctive to a particular
group, or it may be a social behavior involving more
than one person in a group. If it is frequent and distinctive
of a particular Group, it would be a 'Custom', a subtype
of this Type.
A Custom is a GroupPractice that is
practiced frequently or at certain intervals within a
GroupOfPeople. It may be performed by an Individual person or
by more than one person. A Custom does not have to be practiced
frequently by an individual - for example, the Custom
of having a big celebration at one's 60th birthday will
only be observed once for an individual, though it may occur
frequently within a GroupOfPeople. The Custom of bedtime
prayers may be preacticed alone by an individual within
certain religious groups.
A CulturalPractice is a Custom that
involves more than one person in the activity, and
is therefore a 'SocialOccurrence', and is to some
extent distinctive for a Culture.
COSMO note: Culture is an aggregate of beliefs and
practices. This concept represents the 'practices' part of a culture.
Each CulturalPractice should be an Action representative of
the behaviors distinctive to some Culture.
CulturalPractices can be complex and include attitudes. But
this Type will represent the practice, assuming that it reflects
an attitude characteristic of the Culture.
In Cyc called 'Culture-Practice':
Cyc: A specialization of #$Action and
#$SocialOccurrence each instance of which is a very
extended, multi-doer event involving material and/or social
modifications by #$IntelligentAgents to their environment,
as well as a set of learned shared practices which are
transmitted amongst all members of any given culture. A
notable specialization of this collection is #$HumanCulture,
but it also includes any nonhuman animal (e.g. chimpanzee)
cultures, cultures created by #$Extraterrestrials and/or
AIs. See also #$CulturalEvent.
be16623e-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Any sexual behavior by animals. Copulation (the
specific intercourse act) is a spec.
c10c1d39-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of both #$PurposefulAction and
#$CompositePhysicalAndMentalEvent. Each instance of
#$SocialOccurrence is an action in which two or more agents
take part. In many cases, #$SocialOccurrences involve
communication among the participating agents. Some
instances of #$SocialOccurrence have very elaborate role
structures (e.g. a typical lawsuit), while others have
fairly simple role structures (e.g. greeting a colleague at work).
COSMO note: Note that InformationTransferPhysicalEvent,
which may be carried out by machines at both ends, is
also classified as a SocialOccurrence, since such
communication is at this time (2007) always performed
at the direction of a Person.
NOTE also that the 'Agents' directly performing this
action do not have to be people or organizations,
they can be machines or software agents.
bd588f3b-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
In the #$BaseKB, this refers to the act of two
animals engaged in sexual copulation. See
#$HumanActivitiesMt (and related Mts) for assertions about
this activity by #$Persons.
bd58cbf2-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of #$AnimalActivity. Each
instance of #$HumanActivity is a spatially-localized action
each of whose doers (see #$doneBy) is either a
#$HomoSapiens or a group of humans (i.e. a #$Group all of
whose members are #$HomoSapiens or groups of humans).
bd588deb-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The Action of enrolling of a student in an educational
institution.
COSMO note: This Action includes actions on both sides - that of
the student and that of the school representative doing the
enrolling.
bd58d598-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of #$HumanActivity. Each
instance of #$TakingCareOfSomething is a purposeful action
in which an agent acts to maintain, preserve, or promote the
health or good condition of someone or something (the thing
taken care of is related to the action via the predicate
#$objectTakenCareOf (q.v.)). Notable specializations of
#$TakingCareOfSomething include #$Exercising,
#$MedicalTreatmentEvent, and #$TeethCleaning.
bd58d0f8-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
COSMO note: the process corresponding to
a TakingCareOfSomethingEvent. In Cyc no distinction is
made in the hierarchy between Event and Process.
Cyc: A specialization of #$HumanActivity. Each
instance of #$TakingCareOfSomething is a purposeful action
in which an agent acts to maintain, preserve, or promote the
health or good condition of someone or something (the thing
taken care of is related to the action via the predicate
#$objectTakenCareOf (q.v.)). Notable specializations of
#$TakingCareOfSomething include #$Exercising,
#$MedicalTreatmentEvent, and #$TeethCleaning.
bd58d0f8-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
COSMO note: an ImprovementEvent is clasified as
such from the point of view of anyone who considers
his/her situation to have improved. This differes form the
Cyc defnition. Improvements can occur without the
participation of the beneficiary, such as EconomicImprovement
Cyc: The collection of actions in which something is
improved by being changed. The improvement is from the
point of view of the performer.
bfeea174-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An ImprovementEvent in which some aspect of the
economic situation of a population has
improved. Each EconomicImprovementEvent is the
result of some EconomicDevelopment process, however,
CoSMO does not require that the EconomicDevelopment process
be reified in order to reference an EconomicImprovementEvent.
The collection of all events, brief or extended,
in which an agent is acquiring information or know-how.
This applies to all reading events, with the
interpretation that reading means to learn (to some extent)
what was written in the written material, even if that material
is fictional or useless information, or the information
content was already known.
NOTE: intentional attempts at learning,such as searching and
investigation, even if unsuccessful, are categorized as
'Learning' in COSMO because information is obtained,
even in unsuccessful search, where the searcher learns that
what is sought is not present where it was sought.
SUMO: The Class of Processes which relate to the
acquisition of information.
bd58ef72-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
COSMO note: Cyc considers all experience to be learning,
which may be problematic for bad experiences. We leave it
as Cyc has it, but need to remove' TakingCareOfSomething' from
the parents, to allow non-deliberate learning.
Cyc: An Event in which a CognitiveAgent participates
in some PhysicalEvent, and through sense impressions learns
something. The Learning in an Experience is a result
not merely of interpreting the content of a Communication,
but from sense impressions or invoked responses other than
the sense impressions required to interpret a communication.
As a borderline included case, it is possible to say
that a person has an 'Experience' in reading a book,
because the book evoked emotions; in this case the
'Experience' includes the evoking of the emotions, not
merely the interpretation of the content. A person may
also have an 'Experience' in a conversation by observig
how the others in the conversation react to events in
the conversation.
An Experience will include a Perceiving event and
a Reaction event.
From Random House Webster:
'the process or fact of personally observing, encountering,
or undergoing something: [e.g.] business experience.'
NOTE: in COSMO we classify an 'Experience' as a subtype of
'Action' to indicate that the focus of the subject is an
Agent, even though no Events external to the Agent may
be caused by the Experience.
A specialization of #$Action. Each instance of
#$SingleDoerAction is an action which can have only one
doer (see the predicate #$doneBy). Such actions may be
intentional, but they need not be. Most bodily functions
(e.g., the instances of #$Heartbeating or
#$Bleeding-TheAction) belong to specializations of
#$SingleDoerAction, because the only doer of a normal bodily
function is the body of a single agent. In order for a type
of action (i.e., a specialization of #$Action) to be a
specialization of #$SingleDoerAction, it must be
inconsistent to assert, for any instance
ACT; of that type of action, both
(#$doneBy ACT; X;) and
(#$doneBy ACT; Y;),
where X; and Y; are
different. Notable specializations of #$SingleDoerAction
include #$Sleeping, #$Dying, #$AnimalWalkingProcess, and #$WritingByHand.
c0fd4844-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
phenomenon[DOLCE?no_actor_involved]
A phenomenon is basically an Event that does not include
any intentional active participation. Therefore it is disjoint with 'Action'.
Natural events that are not caused by the action of an animal
will be subtypes of this category.
DOLCE (phenomenon)
Therefore, it cannot be sequenced by a task. It can be seen as an
accomplishment when some intentionality puts boundaries on it
(although it is not claimed to be inherently intentional).
On the other hand, a purely physical phenomenon does not seem
to have inherent boundaries either ... and also for biological
processes as well as economic processes this seems to be disputable.
If the boundary hypothesis is discarded, phenomenon should
migrate under process.
OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002
The collection of wholly intangible individuals, a specialization of both
#$Intangible and #$Individual. Instances of #$IntangibleIndividual are immaterial,
and thus do not have mass, color, or other tangible qualities. Examples include
mathematical objects (such as numbers, functions, and relations), attributes,
time intervals, space regions, and events. Excluded are sets and collections because,
although intangible, they are not individuals.
IntangibleIndividual*
A MentalObject is an Object that does not have mass and was created
by an IntelligentAgent (usually a Person.or Organization). This is a very
broad and primitive category comprehensible mostly by inspection of
a list of subtypes. Since this is not physical, instances of this
Type are not observable, but physical representations of instances
of this Type (such as a specific copy of 'Gone With the Wind') can
be weighed and felt.
Abstract texts, musical compositions, propositions, theories, plays, poems,
speeches, rights - all are MentalObjects. They will invariably have a physical
representation in some PhysicalObject (including brains, light waves and sound waves).
But the MentalObject itself has no physical (material) component. This corresponds
closely to what in some systems (e.g. the Ontology Works top ontology) is called an
'AbstractArtifact' - something created by a Person that is not a PhysicalObject.
We adopt the convention that an individual MentalObject exists only so long as there
is some PhysicalObject that represents it. That PhysicalObject could be the brain
of a Person, some sound or electromagnetic waves encoding that MentalObject, or
some piece of paper with markings on it. When the last physical object representing
that MentalObject ceases to exist, that MentalObject also ceases to exist. A new
MentalObject indistinguishable from a previously existing one can always be created
(even by the original creator), but it would be a different individual with a
different identity.
NOTE that a MentalObject is a subtype of 'AbstractEntity', but we adopt the convention that
it can hava a location in space-time, being the collection of locations where its physical
representations are located. Thus a Belief or a Proposition may be located in the brain of
one or more IntelligentAgents, or in physical documents describing the belief symbolically.
This 'location' differs from the location of any individual physical object, because
the location is the collection of all physical objects containing representations of
the Mental Object. This notion of 'abstract' is not the same as the traditional 'abstract' which cannot be
located in space-time. Other subtypes of 'AbstractEntity' such as MathemaitcalObjects
will be more traditionally abstract in that way. An idiosyncratic 'location' for a
MentalObject is the location of a GeopoliticalEntity, which is located in the region
controlled by the GeopoliticalEntity.
Equivalent to the Cyc #$Artifact-Intangible
OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002: A specialization of both #$IntangibleIndividual and #$Artifact-Generic. Each instance
of #$Artifact-Intangible is an intangible thing intentionally created by an agent or agents.
Important specializations of #$Artifact-Intangible include #$ComputerLanguage,
#$ConceptualWork, and #$Agreement.
Cyc: The collection of all instances of matters of
discussion, debate, or public concern.
Synonyms: consideration, factor (for planning purposes)
Similar to sense 2 of 'consideration' in WOrdNet
WordNet 2.1 circumstance, condition, consideration --
(information that should be kept in mind when making a decision;
'another consideration is the time it would take')
WordNet Sense 4 is closer to COSMO 'Topic', the parent of
COSMO 'Issue':.
Wordnet 4. topic, subject, issue, matter -- (some situation or
event that is thought about; 'he kept drifting off the topic';
'he had been thinking about the subject for several years';
'it is a matter for the police')
Sense 1 of 'issue' in WordNet (a matter in dispute) is treated
in COSMO as the more specific subtype of 'PublicIssue'
Wordnet sense 1. issue -- (an important question that is in dispute
and must be settled;
'the issue could be settled by requiring public education
for everyone'; 'politicians never discuss the real issues'
COSMO note: this is a very broad category, which
can include any topic that may need discussion for
cooperative decision-making. Thus something labeled
as an 'issue' may be a state, attribute, object, action -
any category of thing that can affect a person.
bf7ab027-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An Issue that forms a topic of discussion
that is widely believed to need resolution as a matterfor pubic
(usually government) action.
Sinilar to Sense 1 of 'issue' in WordNet (a matter in dispute):
Wordnet sense 1. issue -- (an important question that is in dispute
and must be settled;
'the issue could be settled by requiring public education
for everyone'; 'politicians never discuss the real issues'
COSMO note: this is a very broad category, which
can include any topic that may need discussion for
cooperative decision-making. Thus something labeled
as an 'issue' may be a state, attribute, object, action -
any category of thing that can affect a person.
bf7ab027-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
COSMO note: called 'AwardPractice' in Cyc.
Each instance of this type is an abstract object
conveyed from some Authority (some person or organization
who created the type of award conferred) to an individual,
organization, animal (first prize at a competition) or
to some object (building, art work)
The abstract award is often symbolized by presentation
of a plaque, medal, trophy, or document. An academic degree
is an HonorAward. An HonorAward is often, but does not
have to be, in recognition of some distinguished
action. Military medals (abstract version) are
HonorAwards. Each HonorAward is considered in COSMO
by convention as being created on the day it is
formally presented.
Cyc: A collection of intangibles. Each instance of
#$AwardPractice is a distinction bestowed upon someone or
something by an appropriately authorized agent, generally in
recognition of some accomplishment and often as a result of
a competitive process. Awards may be given to people,
books, buildings, cities, etc. Note that this collection
represents the awards themselves rather than tangible
symbols of awards, such as medals or Oscar statuettes. Nor
do its instances represent any money that might accompany an
award. See also #$SymbolicObject, #$Token-Physical.
bd58dc36-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A MilitaryAward is an HonorAward (abstract)
assigned by some authority for actions performed while
in a MilitaryOrganization. The award may be assigned by
a MilitaryOrganization or a Government (e.g. the
Congressional Medal of Honor).
An AppearanceAttribute is an attribute of a Person
that can be observed by looking at the person. Marks on
the skin, even though they may be hidden when normal
clothing is worn, are appearance attributes (e.g. tatoos
on the buttocks).
hasFeature relates an Object (abstract or physical) to
some Feature possessed by the Object. A Feature is an
Object, but not necessarily a PhysicalObject, and
not necessrily a part.
hasPhysiologicalFeature relates an Organism to
some observalbe external Feature possessed by the Organism.
A Feature is an Object, but not necessarily a PhysicalObject,
it cold be a dimple or wrinkle on the face.
A PhysicalObject that symbolizes that some
person, organization, or thing has been awarded an
HonorAward by some Authority. Trophies awarded for sports
competitions, Military medals and the Oscar (Academy Award)
are examples.
A MilitaryDecoration is an AwardSymbol (e.g.
medal, ribbon, or both) that symbolizes that some person,
has been awarded a MilitaryAward by some MilitaryOrganization
or Government.
hasMilitaryDecoration relates a Person
to some MilitaryAward that was conferred on that Person.
The award is the abstract honor, not the physical symobl,
which may have been lost or given away. Once the award
is conferred, the Person always 'has' it, even if the
person rejects or refuses to accept it. This relation
indicates the act of conferring the award.
Creates and awards AcademyAwards (the Oscar).
A specialization of #$AwardPractice. Each
instance of #$AcademyAward is given by the
#$AcademyOfMotionPictureArtsAndSciences. Note that the
award is an intangible. Multiple Oscar statuettes may be
given for one award, when there are collaborators, or on the
rare occasions of a tie.
c0c96891-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A MentalObject that relates two or more IntelligentAgents in such a
way that the Agent that has the Right may do something that affects the other Agent,
without creating a right for the other Agent. This is a primitive concept.
The Right refers to some future Sitation (action, event, state) that the
Agent having the Right may cause to occur.
The Random House Webster describes this sense of 'right' as:
'that which is due to anyone by just claim, legal guarantees, moral principles, etc.'
A Right is in some sense an inverse of Obligation, in that failure to perform an
Obligation can incur negative consequences for an Agent with an Obligation,
whereas in theory having a Right should allow an Agent to perform an act
without direct negative social consequences from the Agent against whom a Right
is held. For certain types of Right, not having a Right implies an Obligation
not to do the action that is the subject of the Right.
Whereas an Obligation is created by an Authority, a Right can
be created by simple unilateral permission, negotiation, payment, or by dint of a
situation such as being born in a particular place. Nevertheless, a Right always
involves some other Agent (which can be as abstract as God or one's own conscience),
otherwise the alternative of not having a Right would incur no negative consequence on
performing the action.
The Right to ownership of private property. This 'Right' is
not universally acknowledged (as in Communist countries), and is restricgted
by other rights like eminent domain.
'Property' in Yale OCM (420) appears to be similar in meaning::
OCM: General statements dealing with several of the specific aspects
of the property system. Material concerning the property system as a whole
will be filed in Category 421. The term 'property' is to be distinguished
from wealth, material possessions, or any object of ownership. It is
to be understood only in the strict technical sense of the jural relations
of people with regard to some subject matter and governing the use and enjoyment
of the latter. In precise usage, a 'right' is correlated with a 'duty' (if A has a
right against B, B is under a corresponding duty toward A); a 'privilege' is
correlated with 'no right' (if A has a privilege as against B, B has no right
against A, instead of a duty); a 'power' is correlated with 'liability' (if A
has a power as against B, B is under a liability that his jural relations may
be changed by a voluntary act on the past of A). A 'title' is a
distinct constellation of rights, privileges, and powers with respect to some
subject matter. A 'type of ownership' refers to the social composition of the
holders of a title, e.g., an individual, a partnership, a clan, a corporation,
a state. A 'property transaction' is an act which transfers a title
to a new owner. A "property system" consists of every type of title, ownership,
and property transaction recognized by a society with respect to all culturally
defined classes of subject matter, and is not dependent upon the statistical
frequency with which its constituent elements manifest themselves..
The Right to purchase or sell a specific quantity of a financial security
.at a fixed price within some period of time. This Right relates to
some specific Agent with whom the transaction will be made. Options almost
always have an expiration date, but do not have to expire.
GenericSubstance[COSMO-added:_not_an_object,_includes_chemicals]
List name: GenericSubstance_COSMO-added__not_an_object__includes_chemicals_
COSMO: GenericSubstance is an abstract notion of Substance as the stuff of
which objects are composed. It is not an object, even though 'Substance'
in OpenCyc and SUMO are actually objects of some particular (homogeneous)
composition. In COSMO, we make this provision, among other reasons,
to allow abstract 'substances' to compose abstract objects.
In COSMO 'Subtance' is a concept that is analogous to the derivative
of an object with respect to volume, i.e. it acts like an abstract density
(of some substance type). For COSMO version 0.01 (COSMOtopOWL03: 2006-01-01)
the required axioms for a proper definition have not been added.
For more discussion see:
http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/SICoP/ontac/reference/DimensionsOfProcessAndEvent.doc
A PhysicalSubstance includes any of the common 'substances' we encounter every day:
water, air, sugar, salt, coffee (ground or as a drink), beer, meat, steel, plastic, etc.
This concept must not be construed as a physical object made of some substance.
PhysicalObjects which are relatively homogeneous (the atmosphere, the ocean) can be
construed as consisting of one or more PhysicalSubstances.
IMPORTANT NOTE: PhysicalSubstances are categorized by the main consitutent.
Therefore 'SeaWater' is considered as a subtype of 'Water'. The pure chemical substances
can be represented when desirable by creating a 'Pure' category under the general heading.
Thus we have a Type called 'PureWater'. Steel might be considered as a subtype of 'Iron',
except that some steels do not have iron as the main consitutent.
COSMO note: Because substances are represented in COSMO as Types (classes) rather than
instances, the specification of properties of substances gets involved,
and the intended meanings cannot be specified fully without the use of FOL.
As placeholders, some relations between substances are specified, and in OWL these
will be interprted as applying only to those specific Substances (Type that are
instances of SubstanceType), while the intended meaning is that the relation
applies not only to the particular Type but to all subtypes as well.
THe translation of the OWL ontology to FOL should carefully handle these
placeholder relations to be sure hey are translated properly.
.
The restriction on hasGrainDiameter for SubstanceTypes (which see) should require
subclasses rather than instances
of LengthMeasure - instances may have to be created as a workaround.
(still not decided, v0.43).
NOTE that a substance at some particular concentration is a subtype of that
substance. To expresss that an object contains a particular concentration of
a substance, one can create a subclass of that substance having the
appropriate concentration attribute, and relate the object to that
concentration of substance by the relation 'hasConstituentSubstance'.
This representation solves some logical problems, but creates implementation
problems in restricted logics such as OWL.
We are using a relation: 'hasQualitativeAttribute', with specific substances
as the domain 'instance', with a restriction on the range value,
to indicate that substances necessarily have some particular property.
However, OWL will interpret the restriction as applying to the instances of the
substance Type (of which there are none) rather than on the substance Type itself,
or its subtype. This restriction will have to be
interpreted by applications as meaning that the substance represented by the
class has those properties. the easy way to solve the problem is to create
a metatype for each substance Type (i.e. for each of millions of substances),
and have the restriction apply to the metatype - but this duplicates Types
as metatypes. Leave the proper implementation to the application
A collection of collections, and a specialization
of #$TemporalStuffType. Each instance of
#$ExistingStuffType is a collection of things (including
portions of things) which are both temporally and spatially
stufflike. Division in time or space does not destroy the
stufflike quality of the object (down to a certain
granularity). (#$isa STUFFTYPE #$ExistingStuffType)
implies both (i) for most instances STUFF of STUFFTYPE, for
any proper physical part (see #$physicalParts) PART of
STUFF, PART is also an instance of STUFFTYPE and (ii) for
all instances STUFF of STUFFTYPE, for most proper physical
parts PART of STUFF, PART is also an instance of STUFFTYPE.
For example, every piece of wood is temporally stufflike: if
W-168 is a piece of wood during 1996, then it's also a
piece of wood for the one-minute time-slice 9:05am 7/7/96.
It's also spatially stufflike: if we take that piece of
wood W-168 and cut it in half, we have two things which are
both pieces of wood. Since every piece of wood is both
temporally and spatially stufflike, #$Wood is an instance of
#$ExistingStuffType. Other instances of #$ExistingStuffType
include the collections #$AppleJuice, #$IceCream, #$Diamond,
#$WaxedPaper, and #$StriatedMuscle. See the comment for
#$StuffType to learn more about the distinctions between,
and the need for, these four collections: #$StuffType,
#$ObjectType, #$ExistingStuffType, and #$ExistingObjectType.
bd59f2ea-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A #$SecondOrderCollection and a specialization of
#$ExistingStuffType (q.v.). Each instance of
#$TangibleStuffStateType is a collection of pieces of
tangible stuff that are all in the same distinct physical
state, where the notion of physical state is a naive (as
in #$NaivePhysicsMt) concept of a distinctive physical
structure and/or texture. Some instances of
#$TangibleStuffStateType have distinctive chemical
compositions, such as #$Diamond; but for collections that
are distinguished _solely_ on the basis of chemical
composition, see #$TangibleStuffCompositionType.
#$TangibleStuffStateType includes both (i) collections of
substances that can exist only in one distinct physical
state (e.g. #$Diamond again) and (ii) collections of pieces
of stuff that by definition are in a certain distinct state
(e.g. ice). Instances of #$TangibleStuffStateType include
#$Foam, #$Rubble, and (#$LiquidFn #$Water). Note that
#$Water per se is _not_ an instance of
#$TangibleStuffStateType, since some water is in a gaseous
state or a solid state. See also (the somewhat orthogonal) #$PhysicalStructuralAttribute.
be00c400-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
isTheProductOf relates an Object (abstract or physical) to
the PhysicalEvent in which it was created.
A FractionalComponentSubstance is a PhysicalSubstance
that is a component part of some other PhysicalSubstance, and has
an attribute value that indicates what percentage of the
whole substance consists of this FractionalComponentSubstance.
The percentage composition (which can be mass percent or volume percent)
is a necessary part of the definition of each instance of this Type.
Every subtype of this type must be an instance of SubstanceType.
This odd Type is included as a way to represent fractional substance
composition, which more naturally would be representdd by a
ternary relation [e.g., (hasFractionalComponent Air Oxygen 20%).
But to accommodate the OWL binary relation restrictions,
this Type is added.
Oxygen at 20% weight fraction.
0.20
isWeightFraction is a very specialized relation for the
Type 'FractionalComponentSubstance', which specifies the farction of
the domain argument that is represented by the specific instance
of 'FractionalComponentSubstance'. In English,
this might be expressed as (20% Oxygen) for a substance whose
parent is Oxygen, and whose percentage (by weight) is 20.
For the rationale requiring this relation, see 'FractionalComponentSubstance'.
hasParentSubstance is a specialized relation for use
in specifying the meaning of an instance of 'FractionalComponentSubstance'.
For the rationale behind the use of this relation, see
'FractionalComponentSubstance'
The collection of all #$Resources consists in
things that are useful, i.e. things that are either needed or
helpful for carrying out a task or running a system.
Resources include financial resources, energy resources, raw
materials, information, infra-structure and so on.
Certain types of people may qualify as 'Resource' - employees,
slaves, contractors, etc. But 'Resource' is a Role, and
not all people are Resources - it depends on the situation.
Important NOTE: A Resource does not necessarily have to
have a net positive value, it merely needs to be useful in
some situation. Some things that may count as
resources may be, depending on the situation, a
'white elephant', i.e. the cost of ownership may exceed the
monetary value of its practical utility. For resources
that have a net positive value, the subtype 'Asset' is used.
c0c575fd-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Any instance of something whose
type is an instance of NaturalResourceType (which see).
Natural resources can be viewed as Types (ore, petroleum) or
as instances (a quantity of oil in some location.
In COSMO, both the class 'NaturalResource' and the
metaclass 'NaturalResourceType' are available to use
as required. An instance of NaturalResource is anything
(object, energy source) that can be exploited for
economic benefit (including scenery as a lure for tourists).
The collection of collections of things that are
useful in nature.
c0c73787-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
COSMO note: This Cyc category has been redefined to
represent those substances found in nature (or easily recoverable from
substances found in nature) that are useful to people.
enablesOrAssists relates a Resource (something useful) to the
action(s) that it can help perform. This relation answers the
questions 'what is it good for?'.
Note that this is close to but not identical to the relation
'hasDesignFunction' for artifacts. The distinction is threefold:
(1) resources do not have to be artifacts; (2) each artifact is
classified by its design (intended) function, but it may actually
not be useful for that purpose; (3) an Artifact may enable
or assist actions that it was not designed to be used for.
See also intendedPrimaryFunction - merge?? This specifies the Action part of
SituationRole, where the Situation is an Action. An axiom should relate them.
hasDesignFunction relates an Artifact or a System (i.e. something created
for a purpose, which may be a natural biological System)
to the action(s) that it is intended to perform, or can help perform.
This relation answers the questions 'what is it good for?' or
'What does it do?'.
Note that this is close to but not identical to the relation
'enablesOrAssists' for resources. The distinction is threefold:
(1) resources do not have to be artifacts; (2) each artifact is
classified by its design (intended) function, but it may actually
not be useful for that purpose; (3) an Artifact may enable
or assist actions that it was not designed to be used for.
***************** CAUTION *********************************
**NOTE** This relation points to an ActionType or EventType. There
are instances of ActionType that are subtypes of Action, but also there
are Types that are subtypes of 'DesignFunction' which are also instances
of ActionType, but these latter types are **note** subtypes of Event, rather
subtypes of 'AttributeType'. This is a very unusual use of a
relation to point to arguments of very different inherent type.
The 'Functions' that are pointed to by this relation may in turn
be related to actual instances of Event by the relation
'wasRealizedByAction' (which see), There is thus a triangular relation
between Functional objects, the Functional capabilities (attributes) they
have, and the actual Actions that may be carried out or assisted by
those Objects. These relations
Permitting the ontologist to point either directly to Actions,
or to Attributes that point to actions, provides some flexibility.
it should be underestood and used with care.
***************** CAUTION *********************************
Many artifacts will be related to actions by both relations. If not for
caveat (2), 'hasDesignFunction' would be a subrelation of
'enablesOrAssists'. Another difference is that the design function of
artifacts will in general be more specific than the actions
enabled by resources.
Similar to Cyc, 'ArtificialMaterial'. But in Cyc
a Substance is an object of homogeneous composition, while in COSMO it
is not an Object, but a distinctive Type of its own. An ArtificialSubstance
is one that does not exist in nature in the form it was created. Thus a pure
version of something that exists in nature only in low concentration in mixtures
would be an ArtificialSubstance. See also ProcessedNaturalSubstance,
a related concept.
Cyc: A collection of substances; a subcollection of #$Artifact.
An instance of #$ArtificialMaterial is a portion of artificial stuff that
was intentionally made by some agent(s), such as #$Plastic or #$SweetNLow.
Since #$ArtificialMaterials are intentionally produced, this class does not
normally include materials which are merely #$byProducts or #$wasteProducts
of an intentional process. However, what is a by-product at one time or in
one context may be a useful material that would count as an instance
of #$ArtificialMaterial in another.
COSMO note: ArtificialSubstances are resources, since they would not
be artifacts unless they were considered useful for some purpose.
bd590222-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
InheritableType is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class which
is used to identify those metatypes which, when specified as the
parent Type for some class (Type) in the ontology, will also
by implication be the parent Type for all subtypes of any Type
explicitly designated as an instance of any subtype of 'InheritableType'.
This is a primitive mechanism to permit translation of this ontology
among various formats, while permitting the use of reasoning engines
which require that arguments to relations, if restricted
as to Type, be instances of some specified Type.
There are some ontologies, such as SUMO, using first-order
logic, which permit one to specify that an argument to a relation
must be a *subtype* of some Type in the ontology, rather than an
*instance* of some Type. OWL and some other reasoning engines do
not permit that kind of restriction. For convenience, to allow
this ontology to be used in multiple reasoning engines and to
be automatically translated into multiple formats, this metatype is provided
and so that one can avoid having to specify the metatype instance of
every Type that is to be used as an argument to a relation.
When using this ontology in an inference engine that requires
explicit types, it will be necessary to add the InheritableType
as a Type of each subtype of any Type that is specified
to be an instance of such an inheritable type. That addition
will have to be one in a preprocessing stage before using that
inference engine.
An axiom may be added to an ontology using FOL to specify that
all subtypes of a Type ?T that is an instance of an InheritableType ?MT
will also be instances of that InheritableType:
(=>
(and
(isanInstanceOf ?T ?MT)
(isaSubclassOf ?MT InheritableType))
(forall (?ST)
(=>
(isaSubclassOf ?ST ?T)
(isanInstanceOf ?ST ?MT))))
This axiom will permit the ontologist to avoid specifying the
metatype for every subtype of the root type of that Type tree,
in those ontology implementations that can use FOL.
A collection of collections and a specialization
of #$OrganismClassificationType (q.v.). Instances of
#$BiologicalTaxon correspond to ranked categories accepted
by biologists for the classification of organisms according
to their suspected evolutionary relationships. Such
categories change as biologists learn more about the
organisms involved and determine that existing
classifications are more or less useful. They include all
levels of taxons. Specializations of #$BiologicalTaxon
include #$BiologicalOrder and #$BiologicalSpecies;
instances include #$Marsupial and #$Ape. See also #$BiologicalTaxonType.
bd58e2e8-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The collection of biological taxonomic
subdivisions below #$BiologicalOrder (or
#$BiologicalSuborder) and above #$BiologicalGenus.
Especially important in Botanical classification.
bd58cb2c-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
a metatype that can be used
as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype
of Event as one of their arguments..
a metatype that can be used
as an argument restriction for relations that take an instance
of a transitive Event (an Event that has a 'patient' role,
something acted on) as one of their arguments..
TendencyType is a metatype that can be used
as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype
of Tendency as one of their arguments. This metaclass is
of importance in predicting behaviors over time,
and may require probability assignments; therefore
is is considered distinct and not a subtype of 'QualitativeAttributeType'..
a metatype that can be used
as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype
of FunctionalProcess as one of their arguments..
a metatype that can be used
as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype
of ValuableThing as one of their arguments..
a metatype that can be used
as an argument restriction for relations that take a subtype
of PhysiologicalCondition as one of their arguments.
NOTE that illness (sickness, disease, ailment)
is a subtype of PhysiologicalCondition, and this
metatype can be used for relations on types
of illness.
A specialization of #$FirstOrderCollection (q.v.)
whose instances are collections of #$Events. Each instance
of #$RepeatedEventType is a collection of events whose
instances tend to come in series or to occur at more or less
regular intervals. These series or recurrences might be the
result of natural phenomena (e.g. the spoutings of Old
Faithful), human convention (e.g. the occurrence of
#$BaseballInnings within a given game), or a combination of
both (e.g. the annual celebration of Oktoberfest). An
important specialization of this collection is
#$RegularlyRepeatedEventType. See also #$IterativeEvent and #$IterativeEventType.
bd5900b9-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of #$RepeatedEventType (q.v.).
Each instance of #$RegularlyRepeatedEventType is a
collection of events whose instances typically occur along
with other instances of the same event-type at more or less
regular intervals. These regular occurrences might be the
result of natural phenomena (e.g. the sunrise), human
convention (e.g. the execution of a dance step within a
given dancing event), or a combination of both (e.g. the
annual celebration of Oktoberfest). Other examples of
#$RegularlyRepeatedEventType are #$OlympicGames,
#$AcademicTerm, and #$TakingABreath. See also
#$IterativeEvent and #$IterativeEventType.
bd590072-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
GroupType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that
can serve as type for physical objects and an argument restriction for
various relations on types of Groups (not just People, but any type
of Group). This is a primitive mechanism
to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
OrganismObjectType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that
can serve as type for physical substances and an argument restriction for
various relations on specific types of organisms. This is a primitive mechanism
to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
PlantPartType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that
can serve as type for plant parts and an argument restriction for
various relations on parts of plants. This is a primitive mechanism
to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
PersonType is a metatype which is a specialization of OrganismType that
can serve as type for a Person in its aspect as an animal, rather than a Role,
and an argument restriction for various relations on people.
This is a primitive mechanism
to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
RoleType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations
that take subclasses of Role as their argument.
BFO: Definition: A dependent continuant that becomes actualized
as a particular transformation, function, process or role under certain circumstances.
Realizable entities are properties of objects that need not be exhibited in full
at every time in which they are possessed by an object (a non-categorical properties).
Examples: the role of being a doctor, the function of the reproductive organs,
the disposition of blood to coagulate, the conductivity of metal.
COSMO note: Conductivity is considered an AttributeValue, so in BFO
representation used identically to its use in COSMO.
COSMO: a Capability is an attribute of some physical object that
specifies some role that that object may play in events or processes. This is
a very broad concept, including participation in actions and passive processes.
In general, it is not necessary or desirable to list all the roles that
an object may play, as in many cases those roles may be very numerous.
This 'attribute' would be used rather to indicate the more salient roles that
an object can play. For example, a Person who has a particular talent
or skill could have that skill specified; a company that can make a particular
product would have that capability. Another important 'Capability'
is categorized under the subtype 'Tendency', which specifies the way
that an object is likely to behave; the tendency of non-living organic
material to decompose when not frozen is an example of such a tendency.
See 'Tendency' for additional discussion of that subtype.
To dissect individual capabilities, it is necessary to create instances of
the subtypes of this Type (InstrumentCapability or AgentCapability),
and each of those instances should specify exactly what type of
Action the role (Agent or Instrument) is effective in.
Each subtype of Capability is a role in some type of action that some
Object can perform or assist in performing. One subtype of this
is 'Function', specifically a type of action for which an object
has been designed, either by some IntelligentAgent or by Evolution.
Capbilities generally have more than one degree - as in 'Intelligence'.
In CYC, classes representing types of capability are signaled by
making them instances of a metaclass of 'capabilities'. COSMO
avoids metaclasses except where necessary to serve as the type restriction
on a relation's argument. Thus 'CapabilityType' is defined for
that purpose.
To squeeze this notion into an OWL binary relation format,
specialized relations are used:
canServeAsAgentInActionType
canServeAsInstrumentInActionType
. . . but the logical relations between these relations and
the attibution of a Capability to some Object or Agent must
depend on rules not definable in a simple OWL format.
Extensions may use SWRL for this.
The relation between a 'Capability' and the actual instance of
physical action is 'wasRealizedByAction'.
@ToDo: more elaboration needed (v0.45). Higher-arity relations
would be useful here:
{{?x hasCapability ?y} impliesThat
{?x canPerformRole ?ROLE inEventType ?EVENTTYPE}}
NOTE the triangular relation:
an Artifact hasDesignFunction which is
an ActionType, A Capability or Function wasRealizedByAction which is an
*instance* of an Event or Action Type.
see also 'ableToAffect'
A common term synonymous (in one sense) with
COSMO 'Capability'.
The Capability to act as an Agent in some Action.
The Capability to learn, understand, and think. This
category includes the low levels of intelligence found in some of
the more intelligent animals such as apes and dolphins.
A low level of intelligence - inadequate to support
use of a human language, but enabling some manipulation of symbols.
It is found in some primates and dolphins,
and perhaps other animals.
The Capability to act as an Instrument in some Action.
canServeInActionType relates an AgentCapability
or an InstrumnentCapability to a type of action that
the Agent can perform or the Instrument can facilitate.
To determine the type of capability, it will benecessary to
determine the Type of the subject of this relation.
canServeAsAgentInActionType relates an Agent
to a type of action that the Agent can perform.
canServeAsInstrumentInActionType relates an Object
to a type of Action that the Object can facilitate
when wielded by an Agent.
ActionType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations
that take subclasses of Action as their argument.
The function that an artifact is designed to perfrom,
when it is designed to perform a function..
TopicType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on fields of knowledge,
whether formal or informal. This type allows assertions about a whole field,
as in the relation 'isKnowledgeableAbout'.
CapabilityType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations
that take subclasses of Capability as their argument.
OrganizationType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations
that take subclasses of Organization as their argument.
VolumeType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that
can serve as type for volume attributes.
This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations.
VitalityAttributeType is a metatype which is a specialization of
the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for attributes specifyuing
vitality (alive, dead) and an argument restriction for some relations
on QualitativeAttributes.
This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations.
An attribute that specifies whether an animal is alive,
dead, conscious, or unconscious - meaningful only when asserted at a
particular time.
The SUMO 'AnimacyAttribute' is restricted to being alive or dead:
SUMO: Attributes that indicate whether an Organism is alive or not.
The SUMO term approximately equivalent to 'VitalityAttribute'.
An attribute that specifies that an animal is alive, - meaningful only when asserted at a
particular time.
An attribute that specifies that either it is
unknown whether an animal is dead or alive, or it doesn't matter
for the context whether the animal is dead or alive.
An attribute that specifies that an animal is dead, - meaningful only when asserted at a
particular time. Disjoint with 'alive'. Note that a person can be dead and still be
a person.
NOTE that an animal that is dead in this sense can never again be alive. For the
situation where an animal has no vital signs, but then revives, see the
attribute 'ClinicallyDead'.
The attribute of being healthy, which means not
having any identifiable illnesses that would cause one to say
taht a person is ill or sick.
Cyc: The state of being healthy, i.e., not suffering
from any type of #$AilmentCondition.
19b8d7d4-74bc-11d6-8000-00a0c99cc5ae
An attribute that specifies that an animal (usually
applied to people) is 'clinically dead', i.e. has no vital signs.
This is not the same as being truly dead, as people who are
clinically dead may come back to life. This category is
ambiguous, implying neither that a person is dead nor that the
person is alive. It is likely to be used in situations where a person
who was clinically dead revived, and should only be used to
indicate that a person was recently alive but now appears dead.
An attribute that specifies that an animal has been conceived, but is not yet born, -
covering all stages from conception to birth. Meaningful only when asserted at a
particular time.
An attribute that specifies that an animal that is mentioned
has not yet been conceived, which means that it is a hypothetical
animal (or person) that may exists in the future. This provides a referent to
refer to anticipated future people as in statements such as
'My children will be well schooled' when such children do not yet
exist physically. Such referents might also be attributed to a
hypothetical world, to achieve a similar logical effect, but the
use of NotYetAlive suggests an expectation (at the time the assertion
is made) that such individuals
will in fact exist at some point in the future, and are not
being postulated for argument's sake.
An attribute that specifies that a person is conscious, - meaningful only when asserted at a
particular time.
An attribute that specifies that an animal is awake, not sleeping or unconscious,
- meaningful only when asserted at a particular time.
An attribute that specifies that an animal is sleeping,
which implies that the animal is conscious (unconscious is considered
here as qualitatively different from sleeping), - meaningful only when asserted at a
particular time.
An attribute that specifies that an animal is unconscious,
which implies that the animal is alive. - meaningful only when asserted at a
particular time.
An attribute that specifies that an animal is vegetative,
which is categorized here as a more profound state of being
unconscious, which also implies that the animal is alive, but not
likely to regain consciousness. Meaningful only when asserted at a
particular time.
A Difference is an AttributeValue of a pair of entities,
or of the diachronically same entity at different times. The AttributeValue
consists of a group of paired AttributeValues, one pair for each type
of AttributeValue or Relation for which the value differs. If there
are no attribute values or relations that differ, the two
entities might be identical - but if they have different locations,
they will not be identical even if the locations are not specified
in the description of the entities. The problem in deciding identity from
a list of differences is that one never knows that *all* properties of two
entities are known to be compared. Quantum mechanical issues
create additional complications in comparisons at the subatomic level.
A difference is one or more pairs of Attributes, qualitative or
quantitative, that is derived as the result of a comparison process between
one or more attributes of two entities, or between that attribute of a single
entity after some period of time, as after an Event. A comparison process
may also result in a partially complementary list of similarities (see 'Similarity').
There is no exact WordNet concept that expressses this meaning, but this is
closest to WordNet sense 1 of 'difference:
WN: the quality of being unlike or dissimilar;
'there are many differences between jazz and rock'
WN-N04692996: sense 1 of 'difference' in WN 2.1.
In the case of wordnet sense 1, it appears that this is intended to
represent an overall difference, which could be a set of differences
between two entities.There is, however, no other sense of 'difference'
in WordNet that is more general, so this sense is assigned the
most general 'difference'
A common-sense problem arises when we classify a difference as
merely an attribute which expresses the result of 'subtracting' one
attribute value from another. If there is no difference, this
result constitutes both a difference (value = 0) and a
similarity (i.e. no difference). This is counterintuitive, from a
linguistic point of view. Accordingly, though logically a 'similarity'
could be classified as merely a 'small difference', the term
'similarity' will not be arranged as a subtype of 'Difference', but directly
under 'AttributeValue', as is 'Difference'.
To 'compare and contrast' two entities, both the similarities
and the differences might be listed.
A Similarity is an AttributeValue of a pair of entities,
or of the diachronically same entity at different times. The AttributeValue
consists of a group of paired properties, one pair for each type
of AttributeValue or Relation for which the value is identical
or negligibly small. (see also 'Difference' for a related
concept).
The common-sense notion of 'similarity' implies that the
things that are 'similar' are not in fact the same thing.
When asked to describe similarities, the list should include
those properties (attributes or relations) that are little
different between nonidentical entities. There may also be
many ifferences, but the differences
are not part of the 'similarity' attribute.
causes specifies that one EventType usually or
often has as a result some other EventType; the resulting EventType may be
a PersistentState (persistent for some period of time after it is
caused); the probability of the resulting event ensuing is not
specified,but can be specified by subrelations.
NOTE: This relation is for direct physical causation,
not the kind of causation that is mediated by mental processes,
such as 'Jack's action caused me to leave the room'. The
relations specifying mental causation are discussed under 'causesMentalEvent'.
NOTE: to specify that one event inevitably causes another use the
relation 'alwaysCauses'.
To specify that an instance of an Event was caused by another instance of
an Event, use 'hadEffect'.
COSMO note: causality is a very primitive concept, about which there is
no broad consensus. For COSMO, the main inference is the contrafactual
assertion that 'if A caused B, B would not have occurred without A'.
This by itself does not distinguish 'cause' from enabling conditions.
The causal Event A should also be specified as effecting a change such that
the state before A would not have permitted B, while the state after A
did permit B. But processes can also have causal relations. The causality
of processes is not yet elaborated in COSMO. More logical
elaboration is needed.
hadEffect Specifies one of the effects that are the result of an
Event. Not every Event needs to have an 'effect'. A stative event
merely represents the continuation of some attributes at their initial value
for some interval of time, and no changes occur to be worthy of representing as
an 'effect'.
NOTE that this is an instance-level relation, and cannot be used
to state that some type of Event typically or always causes some
type of Effect. For the type-level relation use 'causes' or
'alwaysCauses'.
NOTE that the use of the past tense in this relation does not necessarily
mean that the Event argument occurred in the past before the assertion time;
this relation can also be used to relate possible future Events.
The past tense merely emphasizes that we are discussing arg1 Events
that, in the given context, are viewed as completed and not ongoing.
In Cyc the relation '#$causes-EventEvent' (guid = bfa7c0e3-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270)
has a similar meaning.
Cyc: (#$causes-EventEvent CAUSE EFFECT) means that the
event CAUSE was sufficient to cause the event EFFECT.
#$causes-EventEvent is the predicate to use for token-token
event causation, i.e., causation between individual events.
See #$NoteAboutCausationPredicates for a map of related predicates.
'caused' is a relation between instances of Events, specifying that
one Event resulted by some direct mechanism in the occurrence of some other Event.
It is a subproperty of 'hadEffect', restricted to Events where the occurrence of
one resulting Event can be attributed to the necessary occurrence of a prior or simultaneous
Event.
NOTE: This relation is for direct physical causation,
not the kind of causation that is mediated by mental processes,
such as 'Jack's action caused me to leave the room'. The
relations specifying mental causation are discussed under 'causesMentalEvent'.
COSMO note: causality is a very primitive concept, about which there is
no broad consensus. For COSMO, the main inference is the contrafactual
assertion that 'if A caused B, B would not have occurred without A'.
This by itself does not distinguish 'cause' from enabling conditions.
The causal Event A should also be specified as effecting a change such that
the state before A would not have permitted B, while the state after A
did permit B. But processes can also have causal relations. The causality
of processes is not yet elaborated in COSMO (v 0.43). More logical
elaboration is needed.
alwaysCauses specifies that one EventType inevitably has
as a result some other EventType. This is primarily used for
conceptual relations, like 'killing causes death'. In the physical world,
there are many event types that usually result in some other EventType,
but not always - for that relation use 'causes'.
To specify that an instance of an Event was caused by another instance of
an Event, use 'hadEffect'.
causesMentalEvent is a specialization of relation 'causes'
which relates a type of Event to some mental Event that is *typically* (but
not necessarily alas) caused by the causing Event (however, there is no metatype
in COSMO 0.43 specifically for MentalEvents as opposed to other events.)
The MentalEvent can be to experience an emotion, to acquire
knowledge, to believe something, or to decide to do something. A MentalEvent in
which an agent deicdes to do something may be followed by the actual action, and
this relation can be used to specify that a particular EventType typically
causes some agent to engage in that action - the use of this relation will
imply that the Action caused was mediated by causation of a MentalEvent.
The difference between MentalCausation and PhysicalCausation is that the former
must act through the intermediation of some MentalEvent in an agent, whereas the
latter procedes directly by transfer of matter or energy to some physical system,
and does not require the intermediation of some mental action in a cognitive agent.
Mental causation is a subrelations of physical causation, since it proceeds via
a physical Event, and causes a MentalEvent, which is a subtype of physical event.
NOTE that the desire for or anticipation of some future event can be a mental cause.
Thus, although a mental cause (such as desire or anticipation) must predede or be
simultaneous with its effect, just as for physical causes, a FutureEvent may be directly
related to a mental cause (form a part of the anticipated or desired event), which is not true
of physical causes.
isTheCauseOfMentalSituation relates some
Objects, Processes or Events to a MentalEvent or Mental process,
which are caused in some way by the causative Object or Event.
This relation allows Objects to be the 'cause' of mental events,
(such as revulsion or admiration) even though the act of
looking at or thinking about an Object may be said to be the actual
'cause'. This relation is broad to allow direct representation of
linguistic relations. The subrelation 'hadMentalEffect' is
more restricted to causes that are Events.
NOTE that 'situations' such as a ProblemSituation
are Events, and may be related to MentalEvents by this relation.
hadMentalEffect is a subproperty of 'hasEffect' in which the Effect
is a MentalEvent or mental process. It is also a subproperty of
'isTheCauseOfMentalSituation', which is a relation with a
borader range of causative things.
NOTE that this is an instance-level relation, and cannot be used
to state that some type of Event typically or always causes some
type of mental effect. For the type-level relation use 'causesMentalEvent'.
NOTE that the use of the past tense in this relation does not necessarily
mean that the Event argument occurred in the past before the assertion time;
this relation can also be used to relate possible future Events.
The past tense merely emphasizes that we are discussing arg1 Events
that, in the given context, are viewed as completed and not ongoing.
NOTE that although this relation specifies causation of a mental Event
or process, the resulting Event may be the impetus to an Action
that was motivated by a MentalEvent caused by
the first argument Event. Thus external Events that cause mental
states may cause physical Events via this relation of mental
causation.
convincedAgentToAction is a subproperty of 'hadMentalEffect' in which
the Effect is a MentalEvent, or some Action resulting from a MentalEvent
that was caused by the first argument. This is an aggregate relation, which should
be a tertiary relation of the form {?Event convinced ?Agent toDo ?Action}.
Because of the binary relation limitation of OWL, this is compressed into
a binary relation in which the second argument is an Action that specifies
a specific Action performed by some specific Agent. To determine the Agent that
was convinced by the Event of argument1, it will be necessary to extract the
Agent from the Action instance. This relation expresses the notion of
something (a physical Event or some social Event such as a discussion)
convincing someone to think something, believe something, to feel some
emotion, or to do some action.
NOTE that although this relation name indicates 'Action', the 'Action' can
be a strictly mental event (even a stative Event) such as believing something
or having some emotional reaction such as fear or eager anticipation.
This relation can be used to epress the results of some action taken by one
person or organization to persuade someone else to believe something. The causative
Event, however, need not be a deliberate attempt at persuasion; some natural event can persuade
people to believe something or to take action, and this relation can be broadly
utilized to express, for example, that some astronomical event convinced a scientist that
some physical law is true; or that some natural disaster convinced people to move their
residence.
NOTE that this is an instance-level relation, and cannot be used
to state that some type of Event typically or always causes some
type of mental effect. For the type-level relation use 'causesMentalEvent'.
causedToBelieve is a subproperty of 'convincedAgentToAction', specifically
resulting in a state of belief This is an aggregate relation, which should
be a tertiary relation of the form {?Event convinced ?Agent toBelief ?Proposition}.
Because of the binary relation limitation of OWL, this is compressed into
a binary relation in which the second argument is
NOTE that this is an instance-level relation, and cannot be used
to state that some type of Event typically or always causes some
type of mental effect. For the type-level relation use 'causesMentalEvent'.
isTheReverseOf specifies that one EvenType tends to reverse
the effect of another EventType - not necessarily exactly, but
the effects go in opposite directions. Thus ConcentratingaSolution is the reverse
of Diluting..
a metatype that can be used
as an argument restriction for relations that take an instance
of Location as one of their arguments..
a metatype that can be used
as an argument restriction for relations that take an instance
of Pattern as one of their arguments.
a metatype that can be used
as an argument restriction for relations that take an instance
of Feature as one of their arguments..
A collection of specializations of
#$AnimalBodyRegion. Each instance of #$AnimalBodyPartType
is a collection of body parts, where the parts in question
are differentiated from other body parts according to
structure or function. Instances of #$AnimalBodyPartType
include #$SpinalColumn, #$Eyelash, #$NervousSystem,
#$Urethra, #$Wing-AnimalBodyPart, and #$HeelOfPalm.
bd58e7da-9c29-11b19dad-c379636f7270
BiologicalSpecies is a metatype that can be used
as an argument restriction for relations that take an instance
of biological species as one of their arguments.
An instance of #$BiologicalTaxonType. Each
instance of #$BiologicalSpecies is the most general taxon
from which two breeding organisms of appropriate sexes can
conceivably produce fertile offspring, or, in the case of
asexual reproduction, is conventionally defined. Members of
different species of animals cannot produce fertile
offspring by interbreeding. If there are only two breeds of
a given species and one breed becomes extinct, the second
breed by virtue of that fact becomes an instance of
#$BiologicalSpecies - since the only organisms instances
can breed with to produce fertile offspring are, at that
point, members of that collection. An instance of
#$BiologicalSpecies has members who all have significant
traits in common, and members of each biological species
have other members as parents. Exceptions occur when a
species is conventionally defined to start since parenthood
could conceivably be traced back billions of years, yet new
species came into existence. In biological taxonomy,
related species are grouped into a particular instance of
#$BiologicalGenus. Some genera have only a single species,
but they remain different taxons.
SUMO: The Class of all biological species, i.e.
the class of all classes of Organism whose instances can interbreed.
bd58caeb-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
ObjectType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that
can serve as type for objects, whether abstract or physical,
and an argument restriction for various relations on Object types.
This is a primitive mechanism
to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
RegionType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that
can serve as type for regions, and an argument restriction for various relations on Region types.
This is a primitive mechanism
to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
PhysicalObjectType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that
can serve as type for physical objects and an argument restriction for
various relations on Physical Object types. This is a primitive mechanism
to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
hasCharacteristicObject relates some Region to
Object Types that are expected to be in that type of Region.
CoveringType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that
can serve as type for physical objects that are subtypes of 'Covering-Object',
and an argument restriction for various relations on CoveringObject types.
This is a primitive mechanism
to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
ContainerType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that
can serve as type for containers and an argument restriction for
various relations on container types. This is a primitive mechanism
to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
ContainerType relates some ContainerType or
individual Container to some objects or object type that the
container was designed to hold (by Agents or by evolution).
MeasuringDeviceType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that
can serve as type for MeasuringDevices, and an argument restriction
for various relations on MeasuringDevice types.
This is a primitive mechanism
to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
MeasurableQuantityType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that
can serve as type for MeasurableQuantities, whether abstract or physical,
and an argument restriction for various relations on MeasurableQuantity types.
This is a primitive mechanism
to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
isUsedToMeasure relates a type of measuring device to
the type of quantities that it is designed to measure.
HabitatType is a metatype which is a specialization of
the Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for regions or
physical areas with particular characteristics, and can serve
as an argument restriction for the relation 'hasTypicalHabitat'
OrganismTypes.
This is a primitive mechanism
to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
SubstanceType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that
can serve as type for physical substances and an argument restriction for the hasComponentSubstance relation.
This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
The restriction on hasGrainDiameter for SubstanceTypes should require subclasses
rather than instances of LengthMeasure - instances may have to be created
as a workaround.
'hasChemicalName' points to a string that is a chemical name (there may be more than one)
identifying a ChemicallyDefinedSubstance. Although it is conceptually
an Identifier, we need to be able to have multiple instances of
the same string,so it cannot be a reified element in the ontology.
There may be many synonymous terms in different languages
referring to the same substance. This is not the same as a
ChemicalFormula. To specify a chemical formula on a substance,
use 'hasChemicalFormula'
SpecificationType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that
can serve as type for specifications (plays, plans, games) and an argument
restriction for the isAnExecutionOf relation.
This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
SportType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that
can serve as type for specifications of sports (games) and an argument
restriction for the isAnExecutionOf relation.
This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
GameType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that
can serve as type for games and an argument
restriction for the isAnExecutionOf relation.
This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on relation arguments.
consistsOfMany relates a granular material consisting of multiple
individual objects of the same type (e.g. sand), considered as
a Substance, to the individual objects.
a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations
that take subclasses of ChemicallyDefinedSubstance as their argument.
Cyc: A collection of collections and a specialization
of #$TangibleStuffCompositionType. Each instance of
#$ChemicalSubstanceType is a specialization of
#$PartiallyTangible whose instances are defined _only_ by
their chemical composition - not by their physical state or
any other property. Instances of #$ChemicalSubstanceType can
be of two varieties: (1) Collections whose instances are
completely uniform with each other in terms of chemical
composition; this includes (a) the chemical elements - such
as #$Carbon, #$Oxygen, and #$Hydrogen - which are instances
of #$ElementStuffTypeByNumberOfProtons (thus, the latter is
a specialization of #$ChemicalSubstanceType), and (b)
chemical compounds constituted of more than one substance
chemically bonded, e.g., #$Water, #$Caffeine, and
#$IronOxide, which are instances of
#$ChemicalCompoundTypeByChemicalSpecies (2) Substances which
have a general chemical specification, that is, whose
instances do not have exactly the same chemical composition
but fall within certain specifications, e.g., #$DNAStuff.
Note that collections that are _not_ instances of
#$ChemicalSubstanceType include collections of substances
which have some component which is of overriding
significance in some context, so that in everyday language
such substances are frequently referred to by the name of
their important component (e.g., penicillin applied to a
tablet containing penicillin), but which have significant
admixtures of other substances. Thus, #$Penicillin is an
instance of #$ChemicalSubstanceType, but the collection of
tablets containing penicillin and including other
ingredients is not. Also, specializations of #$Mixture,
such as #$Lemonade, are _not_ instances of
#$ChemicalSubstanceType, because mixtures are determined by
their physical state rather than solely by their chemical composition.
bd58cd95-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
PharmaceuticalType is a metaclass used
as the Type restriction on certain relations that
pertain to more or less well-defined chemical substances that are used officially
(in some society) as a medicine..
LifeStageType is a metaclass used
as the Type restriction on certain relations that
pertain to organisms at particular stages of their life cycle.
BiologicalOrgan is a metaclass used
as the Type restriction on certain relations that
pertain to named parts of organisms at particular stages
of their life cycle. It is not necessarily an animal
body part type - it may be part of a plant.
An attribute that specifies the stage of life
that a living thing is in at any particular time. For
example, a Plant may be in the seed or seedling stage; an
animal may bein the egg or embryonic stage; a butterfly
or moth may be in the caterpillar or pupa stage.
Meaningful only when asserted at a particular time.
AttributeValueType is a metaclass used as the Type restriction on certain relations
that take subclasses of AttributeValue as their argument.
QualitativeAttributeType is a metatype which is a specialization of the Protege owl:Class that
can serve as type for taste attributes and an argument restriction for some relations
on QualitativeAttributes.
This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations.
isTheOppositeOf relates one attribute to another
attribute that would be commonly considered the opposite of the first attribute.
There is a hub-and-spoke structure to certain core attributes and
related attribute, and the notion of 'opposite' is in many
cases more lexical than conceptual. This relation tries to capture
the common cases of opposites.
isaDriedFormOfSubstance relates substances that are inherently liquid
(paint, blood) to the dry substance that is formed by the drying of
the liquid. The dried substance may have substantially different properties
fomr the liquid, because chemical changes occur in addition to evaporation of the
solvent.
A #$SpatialThingTypeByDimensionality and
specialization of #$SpatialThing. Each instance of
#$ZeroDimensionalThing is either a point-like object or an
arrangement of disconnected points in space.
Zero-dimensional objects have no length or breadth or
height, nor do they have parts. Specializations of this
collection include #$GeometricalPoint.
bf6f1bc5-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of both
#$GeometricallyDescribableThing and #$IntangibleIndividual
(qq.v.). This is the collection of all intangible,
geometrically-describable things, whether spatially
localized or not.
#$GeometricallyDescribableThing-Intangible is the
intersection (see #$collectionIntersection) of
#$GeometricallyDescribableThing and #$Intangible. Examples
include any spatially-connected, intangible thing that has
or approximates (or which consists entirely of parts that
all have or approximate) a simple geometric shape, such as
the intangible space determined by a particular Egyptian
pyramid, an abstract Platonic sphere, or the center of
mass of the solar system (a point) at the first instant of
the Twentieth Century in Greenwich, England. Important
specializations of this collection are
#$GeometricThing-Localized (which includes all spatially
localized instances) and #$GeometricThing-Abstract (which
includes all instances not spatially located in the
empirically-observable universe).
c12c73ef-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of #$ZeroDimensionalThing and
#$GeometricallyDescribableThing-Intangible (qq.v.). The
collection of one-piece zero-dimensional geometrical
objects. Instances of #$GeometricalPoint have neither
length, breadth, nor thickness; they might or might not move
over time. Important specializations of #$GeometricalPoint
include #$SpacePoint (whose instances have fixed locations
with respect to some coordinate system) and its
specialization #$SpacePoint-Empirical (whose instance have
fixed locations in the empirically-observable universe).
Thus the center of the solar system, considered
diachronically, is a #$GeometricalPoint but not a #$SpacePoint.
be2227ee-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An instance of #$GeometricShapeType and a
specialization of #$GeometricallyDescribableThing-Intangible
and #$HomogeneousExtendedSpaceRegion (qq.v.). This is the
collection of geometrical figures, conceived of as bounded
(one- or higher-dimensional) regions of space. Neither a
single point (see #$GeometricalPoint), nor a sum of
scattered points, is an instance of #$Figure-Geometrical.
Note that this collection includes line segments, but not
unbounded lines. An important specialization of this
collection is #$PlaneFigure-Geometrical.
The class of all geometric figures, i.e. the class of all abstract,
spatial representations. Instance of GeometricFigure are abstract
mathematical objects which can be considered as independent of
anything in our material universe. They are therefore not MentalObjects,
which must be created by people.
The instances of this class are GeometricPoints, TwoDimensionalFigures or
ThreeDimensionalFigures or any other Object that can be represented as being a
distribution of points, lines, planes, volumes, or hypervolumes in some
abstract space.
be91f0ad-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
hasTendency relates individual Objects, ObjectTypes, substances
or SubstanceTypes to some attributes indicating a Tendency
(Disposition, proclivity) that that attribute has to behave
in a certain way, especially over some period of time.
A substance which is a chemical element.
In Cyc called 'ElementStuff'
Cyc: An instance of #$TangibleStuffCompositionType and
a specialization of #$InanimateThing. Each instance of
#$ElementStuff is a piece of tangible stuff, composed of a
quantity of atoms, all of which are of the same chemical
element. That is, every atom in a given piece of
#$ElementStuff has the same number of protons in its atomic
nucleus. For example, all pieces of carbon (i.e. all
instances of #$Carbon) are instances of #$ElementStuff. On
the other hand, instances of #$Water, because they are all
constituted of both #$Hydrogen and #$Oxygen atoms, do not
belong to the collection #$ElementStuff.
bd5908b9-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
ElementType is a metatype which is a specialization of the
Protege owl:Class that can serve as type for physical substances
and an argument restriction for the relation s on chemical elments.
This is a primitive mechanism to accommodate OWL limitations on
relation arguments.
The element with one proton in each nucleus.
The element with six protons in each nucleus.
The element with eight protons in each nucleus.
The element with seven protons in each nucleus.
The metallic element.
The metallic element.
The metallic element.
The metallic element.
The metallic element, main component of steel.
An instance of #$ExistingStuffType and a
sub-collection of #$PartiallyTangible. Each instance of
#$NaturalTangibleStuff is a naturally occurring partially
tangible thing. Specializations of #$NaturalTangibleStuff
include #$LandStuff, #$Wood, and #$Air. Man-made materials
are _not_ instances of #$NaturalTangibleStuff.
NOTE that a 'NaturalTangibleStuff' can also be
an ArtificialSubstance, when it is extracted from
its natural place for use by people.
bd58d55a-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Any Substance that is the result of an
IntentionalProcess, i.e. any substance that is created by Humans
(from SUMO).
A collection of tangibles. Each element of
#$WaterSolubleStuff is a tangible thing that can dissolve in
water. For example, instances of the collections
#$Soap-Personal, #$LaundryDetergent, #$Sugar-Table.
bd58f037-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A PhysicalSubstance having chemical properties that
enable it to be added to mixtures of water and other materials,
and to emulsify some of the solid or insoluble materials, so that
the insoluble materials become dispersed in the water. The most
common surfactants are used as soaps or detergents, but there are
other specialized uses.
Cyc: Stuff used as cleanser. Solubilizes oil and grease.
SUMO: Surfactants, also known as Wetting agents,
lower the surface tension of a Liquid, allowing easier spreading. The
term surfactant is a compression of 'Surface active agent'. Surfactants
are usually organic compounds that contain both hydrophobic and
hydrophilic groups, and are thus semi-soluble in both organic and aqueous
solvents.
bd58e4a1-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Each subclass of LiquidSubstance labels a PhysicalSubstance which is liquid
at normal temperatures and pressures. This category has been set as
identical to the Cyc 'Liquid-StateOfMatter', though the original Cyc category
is a physical object.
This redefinition was done as part of the disentanglement of Cyc
substances and objects. The Cyc category definition does not apply to this
Type,and is closer to the COSMO 'LiquidObject'. The Cyc category was reinterpreted
as a substance because it was used in Cyc predominantly as a parent class for
what in COSMO are considered as substances.
Water, gasoline, and vodka are examples.
Although most substances are classified mainly by their composition, and may be solids
or liquids (and sometimes gases) depending on temperature, there are some categories
of substances that are conceptually in one state; ice is an example - it must be solid.
A 'BathOil' must be a liquid. A LiquidSubstance is a PhysicalSubstance that must
be liquid, at normal temperature and pressure.
A Solvent is a LiquidSubstance that serves
to dissolve the Solute in a Solution. A Solution of
a Solute that is a solid at the ambient temperature
will be liquid only because the Solvent is liquid at that
temperature.
NOTE that referring to a substance as a 'Solvent'
necessarily refers to a situation where that substance
is liquid at the ambient temperature and pressure of the
situation being described, even though the same substance may
be solid or gas at normal temperatures and pressures.
A Solute is the PhysicalSubstance that is
dissolved in the Solute in a Solution. A Solute may be
a solid or a liquid at the ambient temperature in
the Situation being represented. A Solution of
a Solute that is a solid at the ambient temperature
will be liquid only because the Solvent is liquid at that
temperature.
A specialization of #$PartiallyTangible. Each
instance of #$Mixture is a homogeneous partially tangible
thing composed of two or more different constituents (see
the predicate #$constituents) which have been mixed. The
inputs to this mixing do not form chemical bonds among
themselves, and at a later time the mixture may be separated
back out into these inputs. Specializations of #$Mixture
include #$Blood, #$Mud, #$Air, and #$CarbonatedBeverage.
Note that each instance of #$Mixture has a composition but
not a structure; thus, the following are _not_ instances of
#$Mixture, since all have some structure: a wet sponge, a
person, or a portion of plywood.
bd58e89f-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A generic 'Emulsion' is a mixture consisting of a
stable suspension of one substance, finely divided, in a liquid,
or the dried residue of such a suspension.
Emulsions of oil in water can be formed by agitating a mixture
of oil and water with a surfactant such as soap or dtergent.
The emulsions used in photographic film contain minute
particles of silver halide suspended in gelatin, spread thinly over
a photographic plate or film..
Any Mixture that satisfies two conditions,
viz. it is made up predominantly of at least two things are Substances and any
component other than Liquid in the Mixture is either dissolved, as in a soluiton,
or in the form of fine particles The general category includes suspensions
as well as solutions, and the suspended particles would in the general
case be considered part (a component) of the LiquidMixture. But specialized categories
could be defined to exclude any solids.
which are suspended in the Liquid.
Any PhysicalSubstance in the Gaseous form, at
at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. A quantity of
gas does not have a defined volume, but will expand to become
uniformly distributed throughout its container.
To classify a quantity of matter that is in the gaseous form, use
'GaseousObject'. This is equivalent to saying that it has the
property of being 'gaseous' - but that property is not yet
(v 0.45) defined in COSMO.
At low enough temperature, all substances condense to a liquid or solid.
Any Mixture that satisfies two conditions,
viz. it is made up predominantly of things which are a Gas and any
component other than Gas in the Mixture is in the form of fine particles
which are suspended in the Gas.
COSMO note: a Product is something of a kind that
is or was usually created with the intention that it be sold in exchange
for money or some other valuable thing. It may be a physical object
(or substance), a service, or a right. A stock option, for example,is
categorized as a right rather than an object or service, but is
created as a 'Product' for sale.
Because things created commercially may also be created by individuals
for their own use, being a Product does not necessarily mean
that each individual instance was in fact created with the intention
to be sold. Creation for sale means that things of this Type will
usually be found on the market, or was mostly found on the market
at one time. Antique objects will still be Products even after that
kind of object is no longer manufactured.
OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002
A collection of temporal things. Instances of #$Product are individual goods,
services, investments, etc.-- basically anything that is offered (or may be exchanged)
for money or trade. Typically, #$Products are things that are intended to be sold
or used for some kind of service in exchange for money at least once in their lifetime.
Examples: a Lexus sedan, a package of McDonald's french fries, a massage,
a bouquet of flowers, a share in a money market fund, the services of a real estate agent,
a research satellite. See also #$Artifact.
ProductObject is an Artifact produced for sale:
SUMO: An Artifact that is produced by Manufacture and that is
intended to be sold.
ProductSubstance is an ArtificialSubstance produced for sale:
A ConsumableProduct is a Substance that is
rendered unusable for its intended purpose after a single
use. Fuels are an example, and so is commercially prepared
food.
A specialization of #$PartiallyTangibleProduct.
Each instance of #$ConsumableProduct is a product of which
any portion can be used only once. A portion of a
#$ConsumableProduct is 'used up', i.e., destroyed or
transformed into an unusable or waste form, during normal
use. Note: 'consumable' here does not necessarily mean
consumed by mouth; the consumption may be any use of the product.
bd58e656-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
SUMO: Fuel is the class of Substances that can be
used as resources in Combustion processes in order to produce heat
or light, or both (as in a fireplace); the heat in turn can be
converted into other forms of energy.
Mechanical energy can also be produced by burning fuel in an Engine.
This Type includes the Cyc: 'CombustibleFuelSubstance'.
NOTE this 'Fuel' is for combustion. Nuclear 'Fuel' is of
a different Type.
COSMO note: Fuel is considered an ArtificialSubstance because any
material must be processed by people before it is
considered as Fuel. Trees in their natural state, though
combustible, are not Fuel - until they have been cut and gathered
into a form that can be conveniently burned, in which case
the processed wood is then Fuel. Likewise,
petroleum or coal in the ground is not Fuel until it is extracted
and processed to be usable to produce heat in a controlled
manner.
A PhysicalSubstance consisting of Hydrocarbons,
liquid at normal temperatures, and created to be used as a Fuel
in internal-combustion engines.
A PhysicalSubstance consisting of Hydrocarbons,
liquid at normal temperatures, and created to be used as a Fuel
in engines that power airplanes.
A Device is an ArtifactObject designed to perform some action,
or assist performing some action either using some internal mechanism,
or merely by virtue of certain properties, such as shape and hardness.
Device is very general, and includes simple things like hammers and
candles.
A Device is distinguished from certain other ArtifactObjects such as art objects, which
do not perform a function directly, but only via mediation by a mental process.
Note also that every device has an owner, even if the owner has abandoned it.
COSMO NOte: in an earlier version of Cyc this is called 'PhysicalDevice':
OPENCYC 1: MAY 23, 2002
A specialization of both #$Artifact and #$SolidTangibleProduct. Each instance
of #$PhysicalDevice is an artifact with a relatively rigid, set shape,
designed for a specific use or to perform a specific function.
Specializations of #$PhysicalDevice thus include (among others)
#$RoadVehicle, #$Motorboat, #$HandTool, and #$PlumbingFixture.
Note that artifacts which can only be 'used' in a very loose or
metaphorical sense, such as instances of #$Sculpture, #$FlowerBed,
or #$Advertisement-IBT, are _not_ instances of #$PhysicalDevice.
Moreover, artifacts which have a specific use or function, but which
do not have a relatively rigid, set shape are _not_ instances
of #$PhysicalDevice; for this reason, neither #$GasolineFuel nor
#$AntiFreeze are specializations of #$PhysicalDevice.
A Cyc synonym for 'Device'.
A Device that performs its intended function primarily by causing
physical objects to move.
A specialization of #$PhysicalDevice. Each
instance of #$PoweredDevice is a device that requires some
power input in order to perform its intended function(s).
The power supplied might be muscle power, kinetic energy,
electricity, fuel-generated, and so on. Note that
#$PoweredDevice and #$NonPoweredDevice partition the
collection #$PhysicalDevice.
A collection of physical devices; a subcollection
of #$PoweredDevice. An instance of #$FuelPoweredDevice is
directly powered by combustible fuels such as gasoline,
coal, and natural gas. Common examples of
#$FuelPoweredDevice include automobiles with
gasoline-powered engines, kerosene heaters, propane torches,
and jet airplanes.
COSMO note: the Cyc parent 'MechanicalDevice' has been
removed because purely electronic FuelPoweredDevices using
fuel cells are now possible.
bd58d2b1-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
#$Engine is a specialization of #$PoweredDevice
and #$MechanicalDevice. Each instance of #$Engine is a
device that changes some form of energy into motion (usually
rotation). An engine may operate by burning some type of
fuel (as do jet engines and internal combustion engines), or
it may be powered by electricity, fluid flow, etc. Some
notable specializations of #$Engine are #$ElectricalMotor,
#$ExternalCombustionEngine, and #$RocketEngine.
SUMO: Engine is a subclass of Transducer. Engines
are devices for converting some form of energy resource into mechanical
power.
bd58cec4-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A gas or liquid containing suspended particles;
For simplicity a dried suspension is also categorized
as Suspension, so that dried paint can be considered
as a subtype of 'Paint'. For representing only liquid
suspensions, use 'LiquidSuspension'.
Cyc: A collection of tangible stuffs; a subcollection
of #$Mixture. Each instance of #$Suspension is a mixture
which has exactly one #$suspendingFluid and at least one
kind of #$suspendedPart. Each of the #$suspendedParts is an
instance of #$Particle, and there are a mob of them. Some
suspensions are fairly stable (e.g., mayonnaise), while
others tend to separate quickly (e.g., sugar stirred into
cold lemonade). Other examples of #$Suspension include a
#$CloudInSky, a spray of aerosol deodorant.
In SUMO Suspension is only a liquid: see LiquidSuspension..
bd58bfca-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
In SUMO called 'Suspension'.
SUMO: A LiquidMixture where at least one of the
components of the Mixture is equally distributed throughout the Mixture
but is not dissolved in it.
Paint of all kinds, both in its liquid state and
(later) in its dried state on a surface. For the liquid
paint only, use 'Paint-undried".
COSMO note: In SUMO Paint is classified as a Solution, but
paint is physically a 'Suspension', containing solid undissolved
pigment particles.
SUMO: Any Solution which is capable of Coloring something.
bd58d30b-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
COSMO note: In Cyc, where there was no taxonomic distinction
between substances and objects, this metatype was used to label
both substances (in some particular form) and objects. In COSMO,
this is used as a parent class for certain substances having
particular forms.
These categories can serve as ?X in the phrase 'given as an ?X' in pharmacy descriptions.
Cyc comment: Drug products organized according to their form
when they are given as doses.
c10ae97e-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An #$ObjectType and a specialization of
#$OneOrHigherDimensionalThing (q.v.). Each instance of
#$ShapedThing is a spatial object that has some well-defined
shape (though what counts as a well-defined shape can vary
from context to context); see #$objectShapeType.
Specializations of #$ShapedThing include
#$TwoDimensionalGeometricThing and #$AnimalShapedThing.
Contrast with #$AmorphousThing.
c0946b98-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of both
#$GeometricallyDescribableThing and #$ShapedThing. Each
instance of #$RoundObject is a two- or three-dimensional
object with a round shape. Specializations of #$RoundObject
include #$Circle, #$Ellipse, #$Sphere and
#$RingShapedObject. Examples include spatially localized
objects, such as the equator, as well as abstract shapes.
COSMO NOTE: we included mostly rounded objects with
some edges, such as lenses, in this category.
NOTE that being Convex does not imply that one is
also Round - Convex objects can have sharp edges.
c1005f91-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The subcollection of #$PartiallyTangible whose
instances are not like fluids. #$NonFluidlike objects do
not flow and have an intrinsic shape. #$NonFluidlike is
primarily a collection union of #$SolidTangibleThing and
#$SemiSolidTangibleThing. It is useful as a genl collection
for certain collections whose members can be both
#$SolidTangibleThings and #$SemiSolidTangibleThings, like #$Deformable.
fe5bdeb6-74b9-11d6-8000-00a0c99cc5ae
This attribute holds necessarily of objects that have been dried
534c6650-74bc-11d6-8000-00a0c99cc5ae
COSMO note: In Cyc, this was 'SolidTangibleThing', a collection
of objects. In COSMO, we rename and repurpose this category to be a solid
substance, with subtypes that are substances that are
solid at normal temperature and pressure.
Cyc comment: An instance of #$ExistingStuffType, and a
specialization of #$PartiallyTangible. Each instance of
#$SolidTangibleThing is a piece of stuff possessing many of
the properties that matter in a solid state (see the
constant #$Solid-StateOfMatter) exhibits (although not all
instances of #$SolidTangibleThing are formally in a solid
state). Instances have a shape independent from their
container, and, when deformed with sufficient force (which
may be small for weak, brittle materials or high for
materials that deform easily), they break. Examples of
#$SolidTangibleThings include: pieces of substances in a
solid state of matter, such as ice cubes; solid mixtures
like a quarter-dollar coin or a paper bag; and complex
mixtures of biological origin that behave like solids, e.g.,
bone. Note that some pieces of matter that are formally in
a solid state (for example, pieces of clay) are not
instances of #$SolidTangibleThing, since they do not readily
break when deformed; for this reason, #$Solid-StateOfMatter
is _not_ a specialization of #$SolidTangibleThing.
Collections of the solid form of any type of stuff can be
created using #$SolidFn (q.v.).
bd58c494-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The class of substances consisting of Paint which
has not dried: wet paint on a surface or paint in a container.
The class of substances consisting of Paint which
has dried: dry paint.
A Slurry is a Substance that is predominantly liquid, but has a
significant component of solid particle that are so large that they would
reapidly settle out to the bottom of a container containing the Slurry if
the misture in the slurry were not continuously agitated. Examples are the
slurry consisting of wet and unpoured concrete, and coal slurries that can
be transmitted through a pipeline..
A liquid mixture (solid 'solutions' are not reified here).
The most abundant component in a solution is called the solvent.
Other components are called solutes.
A solution, though homogeneous, may nonetheless have variable composition,
as a liquid solution may be layered if not well-mixed.
Any amount of salt, up to a maximum solubility limit, can be dissolved in a given
amount of water to form a Solution.
NOTE: ToDo: the restrictions do not capture the proper semantics, and need
to be converted to FOL axioms when possible. The 'mainComponentSubstance' should
be a liquid that has the Role of Solvent in this solution.
Cyc comment (modified): An instance of #$ExistingStuffType, and a specialization of #$Mixture.
Each instance of #$Solution is a mixture of two or more chemically
distinct substances, the Solvent (a liquid) and the Solute.
Instances of #$Solution are homogeneous, meaning that the
composition at any one point in a given instance is the same
as that at any other point (for 'points' having a volume
larger than the grain size). In contrast, instances of
#$Suspension are mixtures in which small discontinuous
solid particles are surrounded by a continuous fluid. The
#$solvent of every #$Solution has the #$stateOfMatter
#$Liquid-StateOfMatter. Thus #$Solutions also normally
exhibit the properties of a liquid, since #$solvents are
#$mainConstituents. Examples of #$Solutions include a
sample of seawater, a cup of coffee, a tincture of iodine,
some vanilla extract. In some rare cases a Solute may have
a higher weight percentage of the Solute than the Solvent.
bd59059c-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An AbstractString representing the
atomic composition for well-defined substances,
in which each atomic symbol in the String is followed
by an integer, or another atomic symbol (implying
the integer '1').
hasChemicalComposition specifies the proportion
of elements in a ChemicallyDefinedSubstance. The
range is an AbstractString, but the string is restricted
in that the alphabetical parts must be ligitimate chemical
symbols for elements. This relation includes not only
ChemicalFormulas, which specify the number of atoms in each molecule
(or balanced ion group for ionic materials), but also
proportions of atoms in organic substances such
as biopolymers, where the numbers behind each element
may be fractional, representing an average over several
closely related molecules or an average in a large
molecule. However, percent compositions, specified as
percentages, cannot be represented using this relation.
hasChemicalFormula specifies the number of atoms
in each unit (molecule or repeating balanced ion group)
of each element in a ChemicallyDefinedSubstance that is
not considered as a mixture of substances. The
range is an AbstractString, but the string is restricted
in that the alphabetical parts must be legitimate chemical
symbols for elements, and the numbers after each element symbol must be
an integer. For macromolecules, only those whose
true molecular formula is known can have a formula
pointed to by this relation. A simple grouping is
permitted to express some structure: a hyphen represents a single
bond between atom groups, as in 'NH2-CO-NH2' for Urea,
or '-COOH' represents a carboxyl group.
To specify a name that is not a ChemialFormula, use
'hasChemicalname'.
Water: the substance is not an object, but the semi-abstract
substance of which each WaterObject is constituted. it has conceptual
dimensions of density (e.g. grams per cc). The Type 'Water' includes all
substances consisting mostly of pure water, including aqueous
solutions Ithis differs form the Cyc usage, below). NOTE that the
Cyc 'Water' is an object, and differs logically from COSMO
'Water' as do other Cyc substances from their COSMO equivalents.
'pure water' would be a subtype of 'Water'.
Cyc comment: An instance of #$ChemicalCompoundTypeByChemicalSpecies and a specialization
of #$InanimateThing. Each instance of #$Water is one piece
of some (pure or impure) portion of the chemical compound
H2O. Instances of #$Water may be in a gaseous, liquid, or
solid state (see #$stateOfMatter); they may be salty or not,
drinkable or not. Examples include portions of the ocean,
such as the #$BayOfBiscay and the #$BayOfBengal (see also
#$SeaWater); bodies of fresh water, such as #$NiagaraFalls
and the #$GangesRiver; quantities of chlorinated water (see
#$PoolWater); and the contents of bottles of tonic water
(see #$SeltzerWater). Any portion of liquid that consists
mostly of water but differs from it in one or more important
properties (as does e.g. urine, coffee, and lemonade) is not
itself an instance of #$Water, but has an instance of
#$Water as its main constituent (see #$mainConstituent).
For the specialization of #$Water whose instances are pure,
see (#$PureFn #$Water).
bd58c01d-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An AqueousSolution is a solution for whicht the Solvent is Water.
Role is a high-level concept that aggregates several primitive notions,
and is difficult to describe analytically, but has a necessary property that,
as a subtype of TemporalThing; every instance has a beginning time and an
ending time. For Roles that are created by an Event and last forever,
(The Father of PrinceWilliam), the ending time can be TheEndOfTime. For case roles
in a specific Event, the Role lasts no longer than the duration of the Event (but
may last for less than that time, for participants who participate only
for part of an Event). The most common
use of 'Role' is for concepts that exist in dependence on other concepts, such as
'mother', which implies a child, or 'President' which implies some organization.
But grammatical roles such as the cases of verb case frames will also fit
under this broad category. When a phrase such as 'The ?X of ?Y' is encountered,
almost invariably the ?X is a Role of some kind, which also includes parts.
NOTE importantly: that HumanRole is a subtype of this category, and also a subtype
of Person, so Person and Role are not disjoint. This allows HumanRoles
(janitor, President) to serve in the same relations that people themselves would serve,
but they are also recognizable as Roles because they will be subtypes of the Role
catgegory.
NOTE also that when used as a pure OWL ontology, it will be necessary for
every subclass of Role should to be an instance of RoleType, so that it can be
used as an argument for the relation 'isServingInTheRoleOf'. If, in other formats,
this condition is not explicit, the translation should add the Type when
converting into OWL format.
For Roles that are merged with other Types, such as HumanRoles, each should
have its own explicit relation indicating when the role-filler started in that
role and when (it/he/she) ended. If it is possible to fill a Role for
multiple non-continguous periods of time, then that begin and end time relation
cannot be functional.
NOTE also that the use of 'Role" in the COSMO is still being developed, and
is likely to be seen to be inconsistent in application (though not logically
inconsistent) as of v 0.43. The issue not yet resolved is whether the
subtypes of 'Role' as here used would be better categorized as 'playing a role'
rather than 'being a role'. Although this quasi-philosophical issue is not
yet clear, this vagueness does not appear to cause any logical inconsistencies
in usage.
Points from a Role to the Object that fills that
Role. The Role will always have a start and end point, though
they may not be known.
the type Part is not solely a relation in COSMO, as it is in
some ontologies, but a Role category. Of course, there are 'part' relations
such as 'isaPhysicalPartOf', but the Type 'Part' serves a separate
though related purpose. Artifacts that are created
with the purpose of serving as part of a larger artifact will
fit under this category, as will parts of organisms that evolved
to serve a function in the organism.
A GrammaticalType is any structure (word, phrase,
phoneme, morpheme) in a NaturalLanguage that,
in combination with other structures constitues the
grammar of the language, as represented in some grammatical
theory of the language. Examples would be 'Subject',
'Verb', 'Object', 'VerbPhrase', etc.
A LexicalType is any structure (word, phrase,
phoneme, morpheme) in a NaturalLanguage that,
has a distinctie pattern of letters in its alphabetical
representation. An example would be an Abbreviation.
A CaseRole is a Role that a Word or Phrase,
or its associated concept, may serve in relation to the Verb
of a Sentence, or to an Event. Common Roles are Subject and Object;
more specific roles are Agent and Patient (for actions). Yet more
specific roles are mother and child (for verbs like 'bore'and
'gave birth to' or ). In COSMO the CaseRoles are nominalized
Types, in which the line of distinction between 'grammar' and
'semantics' is blurred. This entails that, for the CaseRoles,
each grammatical Type also has some semantic content; the semantic
content becomes more precise as the subtypes of the CaseRole
become more detailed.
In SUMO CaseRoles are treated as relations on
a Process. In COSMO the CaseRoles are grammatical,
and the corresponding conceptual roles are
indicated by relations in COSMO,
A RoleInAnEvent is a Role that an Object takes
from the fact that it a participant of a particular type in
an Event. If that Role is generated by the Event and
continues after the Event (such as the 'BirthMother' role
due to a BirthEvent), that Role will be a subtype of the
specialization 'RoleCreatedByEvent'
RoleCreatedByEvent a Role that arises due
to the participation of an Object in an Event, and persists
after the Event is ended. An example is the Role of Creator
of some conceptual work, a Role that arises because the Creator
was an agent in a Creation event.
A RoleCreatedByEvent may be permanent (such as BirthMother
or Creator) or temporary (such as Employee). See the
subtypes TemporaryRoleCreatedByEvent and PermanentRoleCreatedByEvent.
PermanentRoleCreatedByEvent is a RoleCreatedByEvent
that persists with an Object indefinitely, as long as the Object
that filled that Role in that Event continues to exist. Examples
are the Role of Creator of some conceptual work, and the Role
of BirthMOther.
A Kinsman is a PermanentRoleCreatedByEvent
where the Event is any Event in which a human individual is born into
a familly, is married into a family, or is adopted in some
way by a family or other kinship group. The kinship relation can
be very remote.
A BiologicalRelation is a PermanentRoleCreatedByEvent
where the Event is the birth of an organism as the biological
descendent of another organism, thereby creating permanent relations
between the newly born organism and its ancestors and its other
genetically related organisms, such as (in the case of people)
the aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings, cousins, etc.
A non-genetic relation included as a subtype of this category is
the Role of BirthMother, which usually has but doesn't have to have
a genetic component..
The BirthMother is the female organism that carried
another organism in its womb during gestation and up to birth,
whether or not the BirthMother had any part of its genetic
material transferred to the baby. Most BirthMothers are
biological parents in the usual sense, but in a case where
an egg fertilized in vitro is tranferred for gestation into the womb of
a woman who dis not contribute the ovum to the fertilization process,
the BirthMother may have no (close) relation to the baby she
carries.
This category is general,for any animal with a womb, not
specific to humans.
The man who supplied the sperm to fertilize the egg that
deeloped into a Person. If clones become possible, this will
apply to the male who donated half the genetic components of
some person's genome - identical for all clones regardless of the
number of cloning steps from the initial biological fertilization.
A BiologicalSibling who is a brother or sister, including
half-brothers or half-sisters.
A BiologicalSibling who is male.
A BiologicalSibling who is female.
A TemporaryRoleCreatedByEvent is a RoleCreatedByEvent
that does not necessarily continue indefinitely, but may
terminate at some time; the same role may be then filled by
another Object or be vacant. Examples are the Role of Employee
of some company (created by a HiringEvent), and the Role
of CommanderOfaMilitaryUnit - the unit may continue to exist long
after the Commander has died.
A subcollection of #$PersonWithOccupation. Each
instance of #$Employee works directly for some agent (to
which it is related via the predicate #$employees). This
collection is disjoint with #$SelfEmployedWorker.
See also #$HasPositionRelationship.
COSMO note: to classify someone as an instance
of 'Employee' is is necessary to specify the agent
for whom s/he is an Employee. The Employee will
typically be a Person, and other organizations
would be considered as contractors.
bd58ec41-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
COSMO note: in Cyc this relation is named
'employees'.
Cyc: A specialization of #$hasWorkers (q.v.) that
relates employers to their paid employees. (#$employees
EMPLOYER; WORKER;) means
WORKER; regularly performs work for
EMPLOYER;, and EMPLOYER;
pays WORKER; for that work (often by
paycheck). EMPLOYER; directs the manner
in which WORKER; performs the work and
might provide the workplace, tools, materials, capital, or
other assistance for the work. EMPLOYER;
is commonly an organization but may be a person; e.g.
(#$employees PerryMason PaulDrake). Note that in many
contexts the use of this predicate require proper temporal
qualification; e.g. (#$ist (#$MtSpace #$PeopleDataMt
(#$MtTimeWithGranularityDimFn (#$YearFn 1999) #$TimePoint)))
(#$employees #$NBC-TVNetwork #$KatieCouric)).
bd58cb96-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The leader of a military unit of any size, including
squads that are not led by officers.
A collection of instances of #$MilitaryOfficer.
Each instance of this collection is the #$organizationHead
of a #$StaffOrganization-USArmy. A commander is responsible
for effectively using available resources and for planning
the employment, organizing, directing, coordinating, and
controlling of military forces for the accomplishment of
assigned missions.
bda06181-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A collection of complex #$Events in which a
commander in the Military Service exercises his authority
over subordinates that are assigned to a mission
in order to carry out the mission. The #$subEvents of any
instance of #$ExercisingCommandAndControl will most likely
include making use of any available resources required for
the mission (e.g. personnel and equipment) and then
planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, or
controlling these resources, as well as any units assigned
to the mission, in such a way that the mission is
successfully carried out. Note that most of this comment is
a near paraphrase of the definitions of
'command' (JP 1-02) and 'command and
control' (C2) (JP 1-02) from chapter 1 of the Army
field manual FM 101-5-1.
See http://www-cgsc.army.mil/cdd/F545/F545.htm.
c069aff2-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of #$Requesting-CommunicationAct.
Each instance of #$Ordering-CommunicationAct is a
communication act in which an agent orders one or more other
agents to do something. Specializations of
#$Ordering-CommunicationAct include
#$Ordering-MilitaryCommunicationAct and #$AssigningAgentToRole.
bd58a938-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
COSMO note: this differs slightly from the Cyc
interpretation. In COSMO, this is an Avtion in which a
commonader of a military unit - as small as a squad -
issues an order. The command must some from a commander
of a unit, not just someone of superior rank.
Cyc: A collection of instances of
#$Ordering-CommunicationAct. Each instance is an instance of
a #$MilitaryPerson issuing an order to another
#$MilitaryPerson of inferior rank or to a subordinate
#$ModernMilitaryOrganization that the
#$issuerOfOrder-Military is entitled to command.
bd87b273-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A SubstanceRole is a Substance that is categorized by the
Role it plays or is intended to play in some Event, such as a DrugSubstance.
A specialization of #$Situation. Each instance of
#$Situation-Localized is a situation whose temporal extent
occurs at a specific location in space. Notable
specializations of #$Situation-Localized include
#$PhysiologicalCondition and #$Event-Localized.
71236476-8636-41d7-88b4-b7549eb3213c
A specialization of #$Situation-Localized. Each
instance of #$PhysicalSituation is a spatially localized
situation involving one or more physical objects or stuffs
(see #$situationConstituents). Important specializations
include #$PhysicalEvent and #$AilmentCondition.
7bdc4888-8636-41d7-894d-9e94e3976266
The collection of all temporal situations in which
two or more tangible objects are touching (see #$touches)
for at least part of the situation's duration. This
includes an object's rubbing against another, objects
colliding, as well as static touching configurations. Note
that, although most types of #$PhysicalEvents involve some
kind of touching, only those types for which contact is
salient should be subcollections of #$PhysicalContactSituation.
bfffa642-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A collection of physical events in which two or
more objects are in physical contact (see #$touches) for at
least part of the event's duration. Note that, although
most #$PhysicalEvents involve some kind of touching, only
those for which contact is salient should be instances of
#$PhysicalContactEvent. For events involving continuous
contact and events in which contact is made, respectively,
see the specializations #$ContinuousPhysicalContactEvent and #$PhysicalContactMakingEvent.
bd58e742-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The SUMO term approximately equivalent
to Cyc 'AtLeastPartiallyMentalEvent'.
The SUMO equivalent of 'PurposefulAction'
A specialization of #$AtLeastPartiallyMentalEvent.
Each instance of #$CompositePhysicalAndMentalEvent is an
event that involves some mental event(s), as well as some
interaction between physical objects. Each instance will
thus have at least one #$PhysicalEvent as a sub-event. (It
may or may not itself be an instance of #$PhysicalEvent,
depending on whether it occurs at a specific spatial
location.) Examples include a news broadcast program, a
court trial, someone inheriting property, someone writing a
letter, a physical examination, and a charity ball. Notable
specializations of this collection include
#$PurposefulPhysicalAction and #$SensoryEvent.
bd588d27-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of #$MentalSituation (q.v.) each
instance of which has a single agent (normally an
#$IndividualAgent) as its subject . A subject in this
sense is an agent who has, undergoes, experiences,
entertains, or performs the mental situation, as the case
may be. Instances of #$MentalSituation-SingleSubject can
be mental _events_ (see #$AtLeastPartiallyMentalEvent) such
as acts of perception or mental _states_ (see
#$MentalState) such as Alice's loving Bob. This
collection excludes any mental situations that have more
than one subject, such as (perhaps) an event of mutual
recognition between two people, as well as any mental
situations that have no proper subject at all, such as
(perhaps) an event of mass hysteria or a state involving
the Jungian collective unconscious . It of course does not
exclude a given mental situation merely because it happens
to _involve_ more than one agent; Alice's loving Bob
involves two people, but Alice is nevertheless its only
subject. The two notable specializations of this collection
are #$IntentionalMentalSituation and #$StateOfUnconsciousness.
c08529b5-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of #$AtLeastPartiallyMentalEvent.
Each instance of this collection is an event which is
'strictly mental' in the sense that if the event
is instantiated by some physical situation, that
instantiating situation is not essential to the event being
an event of that type. For instance, perceiving an apple is
not an instance of #$StrictlyMentalEvent insofar as it
essentially requires sense organs and an apple (and thus
#$Perceiving is not a specialization of
#$StrictlyMentalEvent). However, the phenomenological
aspects of this event, e.g., the experience of redness or
roundness, do not require the sense organs or the apple, and
it is conceivable that a disembodied mind could have such
experiences. (Thus, #$ExperiencingPerception is a
specialization of #$StrictlyMentalEvent.) Note that the
property defining this collection is primitive and
notoriously difficult to define, except via examples. If an
event is not clearly an instance of
#$ExperiencingPerception, entertaining a thought
(#$Thinking), or #$ExperiencingEmotion, or fully
decomposable into a collection of such events, then one
should be very careful about making it in an instance of #$StrictlyMentalEvent.
be48d9d6-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
COSMO note: In Cyc a feeling is called 'FeelingAttribute' and
classified very differently, though the intended meaning is the
same. In COSMO, feelings and emotions are considered as
PersistentStates - events in which some more or less constant
mental process that does not involve symbolic thinking is going on.
Feelings are vague and only can be labeled in very general terms.
All different types of feeling are primitive concepts. feelings include
emotions, worries, concerns, elation, many others.
Cyc: The collection of all emotions and mental
feelings. As an emotion/feeling can be experienced in
various degrees of intensity, an instance of
#$FeelingAttribute is some particular relative amount of
happiness, confidence, fear, or whatever. These relative
amounts can be measured using the #$GenericValueFunctions
(q.v.), such as #$LowAmountFn, #$VeryHighAmountFn, etc. For
example, (#$LowAmountFn #$Happiness) is the
#$FeelingAttribute of feeling a relatively low amount of
happiness. (Note that #$Happiness itself is not an
individual feeling attribute but a _collection_ of
#$FeelingAttributes -- a #$FeelingType (q.v.) -- whose
instances are the individual attributes of feeling
particular relative amounts of happiness; (#$LowAmountFn
#$Happiness) is one such instance.)
bd5882fe-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Emotion accompanying an expectation of something
pleasant in the foreseeable future. This is a collection;
for an explanation of a typical #$FeelingType, see
#$Happiness.
bd58cefc-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The positive emotion felt when one is free from
doubt about an event or object from which the agent feeling
#$Confidence expects positive contingencies. For example,
one might say 'I feel confident that tomorrow it will
not be rainy'. Do not confuse this with a personality
disposition, e.g. 'Joe is a confident person.'
(See #$PersonalityAttribute.) This is a collection; for an
explanation of a typical #$FeelingType, see #$Happiness.
More specialized #$FeelingTypes include #$Grief,
#$SelfConfidence, etc.
bd589c8b-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Every element of this collection is a feeling of
being confused or bewildered.
bdc26d11-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The collection of feelings of intellectual
interest, desire to know (more), to understand (more about)
a thing.
c10c317c-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
COSMO note: Distress is not necessarily directed
at one specific thing, but can be due to general conditions.
Cyc: Extremely troubled; mentally confused, distracted.
bd58d06f-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
COSMO note: Enjoyment is not necessarily directed
at one specific thing, but can be due to general conditions.
Cyc: An instance of #$FeelingType. Each instance of
#$Enjoyment is some agent's feeling of pleasure or
satisfaction in some experience or thing. Instances of
#$Enjoyment vary depending on the intensity of the feeling
or on the subject experiencing the feeling. Specializations
of #$Enjoyment include #$Amusement-Feeling and #$Entertained-Emotion.
bd589154-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Agreeable feeling of gratification or satisfaction
bd590bf5-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Feeling of nervousness and excitability. One can
be nervous ABOUT something in particular, or one can have
undirected feelings of anxiety. For the former, state an
assertion of the form (#$feelsTowardsObject AGT OBJ
#$Nervousness DEGREE) or (#$feelsTowardsEvent AGT EVNT
#$Nervousness DEGREE); but for the latter (undirected
feelings of anxiety) use (#$feelsEmotion AGT #$Nervousness).
Note: This is a collection; for an explanation of a typical
#$FeelingType, see #$Happiness. A more specialized
#$FeelingType than #$Nervousness is #$Panic.
bd58c25a-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The collection of feelings of homesickness, a kind
of wistful longing for things experienced in the past.
c1005da5-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An instance of #$FeelingType. Each instance of
#$Restlessness is some agent's feeling of unease or
agitation, marked by a lack of repose. Instances of
#$Restlessness vary depending on the intensity of the
feeling or the subject experiencing the feeling.
c1007595-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An instance of #$FeelingType. Each instance of
#$Respect is some agent's feeling of just regard,
consideration, or appreciation for the worth of someone or
something. Instances of #$Respect vary depending on the
intensity of the feeling, the subject experiencing the
feeling, or the object of the feeling. Specializations of
#$Respect include #$Awe, #$Reverence, and #$Admiration.
bd588a38-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
COSMO note: same as 'determination'.
Cyc: Emotion of one who is firm of mind and purpose,
capable of resisting temptations or surrender in face of
opposition, danger or hardship
bd5881f7-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A feeling of arousal that stirs up, moves
profoundly, or serves as a challenge to one's power,
eliciting the desire to do or perceive something. This is a
#$Collection --- for an explanation of that, see
#$Happiness. Some more specialized #$FeelingTypes than
#$Excitement include #$Enthusiasm, #$Celebratory-Emotion,
#$Triumph-TheFeeling, etc.
bd58c086-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The enjoyment of pleasurable satisfaction that
goes with well-being, security, effective accomplishments,
or satisfied wishes. As with all #$FeelingTypes, this is a
#$Collection -- the collection of all possible amounts of
happiness one can feel. One instance of #$Happiness is
`extremely happy'; another is `just a little bit
happy'. Note: Obviously there are no real units of
measure for this quantity, ways of objectively measuring the
amount of happiness possessed or gained or lost, etc., but
still this has proven to be a useful way for Cyc to
represent and reason with emotions. E.g., one can have a
rule that says that most people have a greater `amount'
of happiness at their wedding than at their high school
graduation, etc. There are functions, such as
#$LowAmountFn, which take a #$PrimitiveScalarIntervalType
(such as the instances of #$FeelingType) such as #$Happiness
and return as their value a certain-sized amount of that
feeling; e.g., (#$LowAmountFn #$Happiness) is an expression
whose value is a positive but small amount of happiness, and
that in turn will be an instance of #$Happiness (and also
will be an instance of #$FeelingAttribute). #$FeelingTypes
organize into a lattice; e.g., there are several more
specialized forms of #$Happiness that are present in
Cyc's ontology, such as #$Elation, #$Delight,
#$Triumph-TheFeeling, etc.
bd58b500-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An instance of #$FeelingType. Each instance of
#$Sadness is some agent's feeling of unhappiness.
Instances of #$Sadness vary depending on the intensity of
the feeling, the subject experiencing the feeling, or the
cause of the feeling. Notable specializations of #$Sadness
include #$Grief, #$Despair, and #$Misery.
bd58b4c1-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An instance of #$FeelingType. Each instance of
#$Satisfaction is some agent's feeling that at least
some of her desires or needs have been met. Instances of
#$Satisfaction vary depending on the intensity of the
feeling or on the subject experiencing the feeling.
Specializations of #$Satisfaction include #$Approval and #$Contentment.
bd58bded-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The states of SexualArousal; sexual stirrings or
physical readiness for sexual activity.
c0c31ee1-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The states of #$SexualGratification; such a state
is ordinarily achieved after an #$UrgeToHaveSex has been satisfied.
c139799e-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Feeling of impressive gravity, as if weighed down
by deep thought or important work. Not light or frivolous,
but serious
bd58b27a-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An instance of #$FeelingType. Each instance of
#$Relaxed-Feeling is some agent's feeling of being at
ease and untroubled. Instances of #$Relaxed-Feeling vary
depending on the intensity of the feeling or on the subject
experiencing the feeling. An important specialization of
#$Relaxed-Feeling is #$Calmness-Feeling.
c10073e2-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Insignificance, Inferiority: feeling of absence of
pride in oneself and in one's achievement, with the
connotation of undue self-deprecation, humilliation or abjectness
bd589ccc-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The attribute-type associated with the feeling of
listlessness: the felt experience of having little or no
interest in or concern for what is going on around one.
Note that a mere lack of interest in-itself is not a
_feeling_, and thus is not sufficient for possessing an
instance of #$Listlessness; one's lack of interest
must be consciously experienced as such. (For the rationale
behind treating feelings in terms of types -- i.e.
collections -- of attributes, see the comment on #$Happiness.)
bd5893b4-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Cumulative psychological or emotional disturbance
caused by environmental influences. Can be relieved by
#$Resting-Relaxing, #$Meditating, #$Exercising, etc.
bf8e052f-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The attribute-type associated with the feeling of
surprise at the occurrence of something unexpected,
unanticipated, or startling. A specialization of #$Surprise
is #$Wonder-Admiration. (For the rationale behind treating
feelings as types -- i.e. collections -- of attributes, see
the comment on #$Happiness.)
bd58c0ce-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A feeling of tenderness or respect induced by the
suffering or distress of another
bd58af7b-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The feeling of being emotionally touched.
Something that is stirring, touching or moving.
bd58c10a-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A collection of persons. Each instance of
#$UnemployedPerson is a worker who is unemployed. An
unemployed worker is someone who either has worked
previously and could still do so (if s/he had a job), or
someone who is qualified to work (e.g., a recent graduate)
but has not yet worked.
bd588cd7-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The collection of all amounts of unhappiness that
an agent can feel. Notable specializations include
#$Sadness and #$Anger.
dcf76076-7433-41d8-82b8-d7360d25a69f
Feeling of willingness to participate in an event
or situation; consenting or being prepared to participate.
(#$feelsTowardsEvent AGENT EVENT #$Willingness DEGREE) means
that AGENT is willing for EVENT to come about to DEGREE
degree. Note: This is a collection; for an explanation of a
typical #$FeelingType, see #$Happiness. A more specialized
#$FeelingType than #$Willingness is #$Eagerness.
c0b608b3-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
be01e59e-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Unpleasant emotion associated with situations in
which a person feels unduly constrained in behavior or
otherwise pressured or controlled by others. This is a
#$Collection --- for an explanation of that, see #$Happiness.
c1005431-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The disagreeable feeling of being without company.
This is a collection; for an explanation of a typical
#$FeelingType, see #$Happiness. Some more specialized
#$FeelingTypes are #$Loneliness, #$Solitude, etc.
c0ed0b82-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
COSMO note: different fromloneliness?
Cyc: The state of being alone or remote from society
c0ed0ad9-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An static Event during which a single individual
experiences some emotion, such as fear, anger, joy.
Pleasant emotion associated with situations where
the person believes themself to be relatively unconstrained
in their behavior, not controlled by others.
c0fd6cd0-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Feeling free from brashness, boldness or
assertiveness. Has no connotation of inferiority; see Humility
bd589d4e-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
COSMO note: in Cyc called 'Innocence', but
Innocence is typically a judgment by others, not a
feeling. For COSMO, it is renamed.
Cyc: Feeling of freedom from guilt or sin
bd588a7b-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A DirectedFeeling is a Feeling that is directed toward, and sometimes caused
by, something external to the Agent - an Event or Object.
Disgust is a Feeling that may be directed at an Object.
Joy may be caused by an Event.
A feeling of opposition against authority or the
status quo.
be0117e6-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The emotion or state of disapproving of something;
a negative attitude towards some situation, proposal,
person, or thing, implying a judgment based on explicit or
implicit standards (rational, moral, pragmatic, or etc.).
This is a collection; for an explanation of a typical
#$FeelingType, see #$Happiness. More specialized
#$FeelingTypes than #$Disapproval are #$Contempt, #$Hate,
#$Abhorrence, etc. More subtly, it is often true that
feelings of #$Jealousy or #$Envy manifest in superficial
shows of #$Disapproval. #$Disapproval is a #$Collection ---
for an explanation of that, see #$Happiness.
be00ca70-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Combination of Respect and Faithfulness to
something or someone .
bd58957e-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Intense longing for somebody or something regarded
as essential to one's well-being or happiness
bd58b077-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Emotion aroused by the removal or lightening of
something oppressive, distressing, or painful. This is a
collection; for an explanation of a typical #$FeelingType,
see #$Happiness.
bd58a14a-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An instance of #$FeelingType. Each instance of
#$Pity is some agent's feeling of sorrow for an agent
(usually some other agent, but sometimes the pitying agent
herself) on account of the undesirable state of affairs that
agent is in. Instances of #$Pity vary depending on the
intensity of the feeling, the subject experiencing the
feeling, or the object pitied.
c0fba7c4-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An instance of #$FeelingType, #$Mistrust
represents the feeling or attitude an agent has towards
something that it considers unreliable, suspicious, or
otherwise untrustworthy.
bd58e231-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Expectation of fulfillment or success. This is a
collection; for an explanation of a typical #$FeelingType,
see #$Happiness.
bd5889b2-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
bfa34ea6-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An instance of #$FeelingType. Each instance of
#$Hostility is some agent's feeling of strong
antagonism towards some (individual or multi-individual)
agent, sufficient to motivate harmful speech or actions
against the latter. Instances of #$Hostility vary depending
on the intensity of the feeling, the subject experiencing
the feeling, or the object of the feeling. One notable
specialization of #$Hostility is #$Hate.
c0f484eb-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Emotion manifested by interest in another person
(or, more rarely, in some nonhuman agent), good will towards
that individual, and an inclination to favor him or her (or
it). This is a #$Collection --- for an explanation of that,
see #$Happiness.
c13b3e2c-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An instance of #$FeelingType. Each instance of
#$Gratitude is some agent's feeling of appreciation
towards another agent for a benefit or favor received from
the latter agent. Instances of #$Gratitude vary depending
on the intensity of the feeling, the subject experiencing
the feeling, or the object of gratitude.
bd588970-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Feeling of one that shows poor return for kindness
received. Ungratefulness
bd58b1f7-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An instance of #$FeelingType. Each instance of
#$Guilt is some agent's negative, self-accusatory
feeling of responsibility for having caused some harm.
Instances of #$Guilt vary depending on the intensity of the
feeling or the subject experiencing the feeling.
bd58e14d-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An instance of #$FeelingType. Each instance of
#$Dislike is some agent's feeling of disaffection or
disaffinity for an agent, event, or thing. Instances of
#$Dislike vary depending on the intensity of the feeling,
the subject experiencing the feeling, and/or the object of
dislike. Specializations of #$Dislike include #$Contempt,
#$Hate, and #$Disgust.
bd58a553-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Feeling of unsureness; lack of certitude or
conviction about someone or about the result of something.
Skepticism. Carries no evil suspicion, as Mistrust does
bd58e1f2-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Intensely desiring something; impatiently expectant.
c010d0dc-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An instance of #$FeelingType. Each instance of
#$Embarrassment is some agent's feeling of mental
confusion or discomposure. Instances of #$Embarrassment
vary depending on the intensity of the feeling or the
subject experiencing the feeling. A notable specialization
of #$Embarrassment is #$Shame.
bd58c194-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
COSMO note: this Cyc category is interpreted as
a dissatisfaction directed at something specific, rather than
a general dissatisfaction with one's life condition.
Cyc: Feeling of discontent, due to a lack of
fulfillment of an agent's desires, needs, or
requirements. This is a collection; for an explanation of a
typical #$FeelingType, see #$Happiness. Some more
specialized #$FeelingTypes than #$Dissatisfaction are
#$Disappointment, #$Frustration, #$Impatience, #$Anger, etc.
bd58a58e-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
Care for, preocupation, worry. The feeling of a person
with his mind engrossed by something pertinent to himself or
another, due to his responsibility, interest or affection.
COSMO note: A feeling does not have to be totally preoccupying to
be a 'Concern'. A person may have many concerns at one time.
A Concern in COSMO must be directed at least in part at some possible
future bad event. Linguistically that future event
would be the ?X in the phrase {J is concerned about ?X}
When such a phrase is used with ?X being an object (a person),
the concern is actually about something happening to that object,
and the thing that might happen to that object is the 'FutureEvent'
filler in the restriction.
The word 'concern' may be used in other senses, but those senses would
be represented differently in COSMO.
bd5893f0-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A ProblemSituation is an Event (which may be a StaticSituation)
that is a cause for Concern to some CognitiveAgent (usually a Person).
Animals are not excluded from agents that might have a Concern,
so animals may have ProblemSituations (e.g. a mother cat looking for
a lost kitten).
The restriction requires, for each instance of 'Problem' a
specification of the instance of 'DirectedFeeling' (fear, concern)
that is caused by the Problem, i.e. what kind of Problem it is
perceived to be by someone. The instance of DirectedFeeling
will contain within it a specification of the Agent to
whom it is a Problem. It also requires specification of an
instance of a 'ProblemToBeSolved', which is an AbstractString
representing a LogicalAssertion citing the existence of the ProblemSituation
(in some World, real or hypothetical), and its logical description.
The logical description
portion of the ProblemToBeSolved may be symbolically identical to the
representation of the 'ProblemSituation' itself, if the logical
language used is the same as that of the ontology. In that case, to
avoid duplicationm the 'ProblemToBeSolved' and 'ProblemSituation'
may cross-reference each other. But the differnce between a
logical representation of a problem in a ProblemToBeSolved and
its representation in a ProblemSituation is that the ProblemToBeSolved
form is interpreted as a String, which in effect is only a rerpresentation
of the ProblemSituation, wheras the instance of ProblemSituation
is interpreted as the situation itself.
NOTE: this method of specifying Problem does not allow us
to call a situation a 'Problem' unless the Agent for whom
it is a Problem is aware of and concerned about it.
We may need another kind of objective 'problem' that *would be*
of concern to an agent, if that agent knew about it and understood
it. As of version 0.46, that kind of 'problem' is not
represented in COSMO.
A common term for COSMO 'ProblemSituation'.
A static Event during which some animal experiences
fear for some interval of time. 'Concern' or 'Apprehension'
are not subtypes of 'Fear' - some level of intensity is required
to qualify as 'Fear'. But 'Terror' is a subtype of
'Fear', being those fear states that have particular intensity.
Terror is the highest reifed level within the general
class of states called 'Fear'.
A collection of mental states and events whose
instances are characterized by intentionality: they are of
or about some thing external to themselves. Thoughts, acts
of perception, and propositional attitudes are three common
types of intentional mental situations. Thus, a particular
act of thinking about the Eiffel Tower, an event of seeing
the Eiffel Tower, and a given subject's believing that
the Eiffel Tower is in Paris are three intentional mental
situations, all having (at least) the Eiffel Tower as their
object. Any thing whatsoever can in principle be the
object of an intentional mental situation: I can think
about a given physical object, an event, a relation, an
attribute, a proposition, a mental state (my own or
another's), a set, a collection, or anything else.
(Note that the above mentioned belief about the Eiffel
Tower and Paris is arguably not itself about the
_proposition_ that the Eiffel Tower is in Paris. But now
note that my belief in the content of the sentence
preceding this one clearly _is_, in part, about that
proposition.) Mental situations that are _not_
intentional, and thus not in this collection, include
moods, itches, and pain experiences. Note that, although
they are indirectly related (see e.g.
#$PurposefulMentalActivity), the sense of intentional
described above is not to be confused with its other sense
as an antonym of accidental . See also
#$IntentionalMentalEvent, #$IntentionalMentalState,
#$objectOfMentalSituation, and #$thinksAbout.
bdc339c8-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
An Event that occurs in Earth's atmosphere.
isaTemporalPartOf relates one Event
to another Event of which the subject Event is a part.
This is a relation on instances, not types of events,
so the part of a particular oath-taking event when
the oath-taker raises her hand may be a temporal part of
the oath-taking event. The part must be a proper part
of the larger event.
This is somewhat similar to the 'subprocess' relation
of SUMO:
SUMO (subprocess) (subProcess ?SUBPROC ?PROC) means
that ?SUBPROC is a subprocess of ?PROC. A subprocess
is here understood as a temporally distinguished part
(proper or not) of a Process.
**NOTE** that a temporal part includes **every** part of
an event that occurs diring some specific time interval,
not just the changes in some selected fluents that take
place in a time interval. So if the larger Event has
multiple fluents represented, the changes in all of those fluents
taht take place in some time interval during an Event must be
represented in the Event pointed to as the subject of
the 'isaTemporalpartOf' relation.
**IF** one wants to refer to the changes in a single fluent
during some part of a larger Event in which multiple fluents
are represented, then use the 'hasSubevent' relation.
A CompletionEvent is an Event which is necessarily part
of an Event of longer duration, and which constitutes the
last temporal part of that longer Event. This would count
as an 'achiement' in Vendler's categorization, but the
logical treatment of Events in COSMO does not
attempt to follow Vendler. The characeristic of
a CompletionEent is that it is the final temporal part of another
identifiable Event.
A specialization of both #$Action and
#$PhysicalEvent; the collection of physical events in which
some doer acts on an object. Each instance of
#$ActionOnObject is an action in which both the roles of
#$doneBy and #$objectActedOn (qq.v.) are filled. Examples
include someone typing on a keyboard and a tornado
destroying a building. Non-examples include a person
dancing and wind blowing.
NOTE: these ations should be represented linguistically
by a TransitiveVerb.
A specialization of #$Event-Localized. Each
instance of #$IntrinsicStateChangeEvent is an event
characterized primarily by a change in some intrinsic
property of at least one main actor involved in the event.
Such intrinsic changes may include changes of a thing's
color, temperature, device state, or size. Events where the
main change is extrinsic (such as a change in location or
ownership) are not instances of #$IntrinsicStateChangeEvent.
In events which have more than one actor, the event may be
an #$IntrinsicStateChangeEvent for one actor but not for
another. For example, in a #$FasteningSafetyBelt event, the
#$SafetySeatBelt (the device used) goes from unconnected to
connected (to itself), which is an intrinsic change;
however, the agent who does the fastening does not change
intrinsically, but only in his configuration to the belt, an
external object. Another example: in a #$HairCuttingEvent,
the hair that is cut undergoes an
#$IntrinsicStateChangeEvent due to its role in that kind of
event, but the barber undergoes no intrinsic change due to
the hair cutting. Note that some events, such as an ice
cube melting into a small puddle of water, could be
represented either as an #$IntrinsicStateChangeEvent or as a
#$PhysicalTransformationEvent, but not (within a single
micro-theory) as both.
bd611277-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of #$Event-Localized. During
each instance of #$CreationOrDestructionEvent, one or more
instances of #$SomethingExisting (q.v.) come into or go out
of existence. Specializations of this collection include
#$CreationEvent, #$DestructionEvent, #$Manufacturing,
#$MakingSomething, and #$KillingByOrganism.
bd675149-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The Cyc term for 'Creation'
A specialization of #$CreationOrDestructionEvent.
In each instance of #$CreationEvent, at least one instance
of #$SomethingExisting (q.v.) is brought into existence (see #$outputsCreated).
SUMO: The subclass of Process in which something is created.
Note that the thing created is specified with the result CaseRole.
COSMO note: an Object (Physical or Mental) produced by an Event
is related to the Event by the relation 'produces' and in the
inverse direction by 'isTheProductOf'.
bd58de89-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of #$Event-Localized. Each
instance of this collection is an event in which some sort
of damage is incurred to an instance of #$SomethingExisting.
Damage may be understood in functional terms as injury to
organisms or impairment of usefulness or value of things
owned or used in any way by them. (Note that for this reason
not all instances of #$PhysicalDestructionEvent are
instances of #$IncurringDamage). Examples include denting a
car, the breaking of someone's leg, the defacing of a
website and slander which negatively impacts someone's
reputation. For cases where the thing damaged is a material
thing (i.e. an instance of #$PartiallyTangible), or an
agent, see the more specialized constants
#$IncurringPhysicalDamage and #$HarmingAnAgent respectively.
579398f2-5fd3-41d7-998e-957de1174732
A specialization of #$PhysicalEvent and
#$IncurringDamage. Each instance of this collection is an
event in which some sort of physical damage is incurred to
an organism or material object. Notable specializations
include #$IncurringBodilyHarm, #$IncurringEquipmentDamage
and #$DegenerationEvent. For cases where the damage incurred
is so extensive that the thing is destroyed, see the more
specialized #$PhysicalDestructionEvent.
bd58a555-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The Class of Processes where the agent
brings about a situation where the patient no longer functions normally
or as intended.
COSMO note: this Action must be caused by an Agent,
and cannot be natural, as can a 'DestructionEvent'.
NOTE also that 'IncurringPhysicalDamage' looks at
the Event from the perspective of the thing damaged,'
not just the Agent doing the damage.
A collection of events and a specialization of
#$CreationOrDestructionEvent. In each instance of this
collection at least one instance of #$SomethingExisting (the
#$inputsDestroyed) ceases to exist. Examples include
deleting a computer file, chopping down a tree and breaking
an agreement. For cases where the item destroyed is a
material thing (i.e. an instance of #$PartiallyTangible),
see the more specialized #$PhysicalDestructionEvent.
NOTE: this is not necessarily an Action because it can be
the result of a natural process or event.
bd58f920-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The Class of Events where an agent
intentionally casues the destruction of something.
SUMO; The subclass of Damagings in which
the patient (or an essential element of the patient) is destroyed.
Note that the difference between this concept and its superclass
'Damaging' is solely one of extent.
A specialization of #$CreationOrDestructionEvent.
During each instance of
#$PhysicalCreationOrDestructionEvent, one or more physical
objects (instances of #$PartiallyTangible) come into or go
out of existence. If the object created or destroyed in an
event is not physical (e.g., if it is an agreement or a
conceptual work), then the event should be an instance of
the more general collection #$CreationOrDestructionEvent.
bdfbe14f-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The collection of all #$DestructionEvents in which
something #$PartiallyTangible is destroyed via physical
means. Examples include natural disasters (cf.
#$DisasterEvent), #$KillingByOrganisms, and dissassemblings
(cf. #$TakingApartAnArtifact). For cases where at least some
portion of the thing destroyed becomes incorporated into a
new created thing, see the more specialized
#$PhysicalTransformationEvent. See also the reifiable
functions #$PhysicalDestructionFn and #$PhysicalDestructionByMeansOfFn.
bf88ea64-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
The collection of all #$CreationEvents in which
something #$PartiallyTangible is created.
be92955a-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
A specialization of both
#$PhysicalDestructionEvent and #$PhysicalCreationEvent. In
each instance of #$PhysicalTransformationEvent at least one
thing ceases to exist and at least one thing comes into
existence (and usually at least some portion of the thing(s)
destroyed becomes incorporated into the thing(s) created).
An important specialization of this collection is
#$PhysicalTransformationProcess, the collection of
#$PhysicalTransformationEvents that are also instances of
#$TemporalStuffType. See also the predicate #$transformedInto.
bd589b02-9c29-11b1-9dad-c379636f7270
isaRequiredResourceFor relates some
resource (money, personnel, time, a substance, an Object ) to
some PhysicalEvent or PhysicalProcess which cannot proceed
unless the Resource is a participant in the Event or Process.
The Object need not be comsumed in the Event.
isaRequiredInputFor relates an Object or
Substance to some PhysicalEvent or PhysicalProcess which cannot proceed
unless the Object is a participant in the Event or Process.
The Object need not be comsumed in the Event.
A specialization of Event specific to Cyc:
Cyc: A specialization of #$PhysicalEvent whose
instances include translational or rotational movements of
whole objects (see #$MovementEvent), objects changing shape
(see #$ShapeChangeEvent), as well as events in which salient
parts of an object move or change shape in relation to the
reference frame of the whole object. For example, although
a ticking grandfather clock is not normally undergoing
either a #$MovementEvent or a #$ShapeChangeEvent, it can
still be said to be moving - and thus undergoing a
#$MovementOrShapeChangeEvent - in virtue of the fact that a
salient part of the clock, the pendulum, is swinging. (Of
course, the pendulum itself is periodically undergoing
#$Movement-Rotation, and the tip of the pendulum is
under