# 1999/6/11 #======================# # Organizing Knowledge # #======================# What is knowledge? How do I organize it? How do I describe it? What is Knowledge? ================== Knowledge is an identification of a fact of reality, reached either by perceptual observation, or by a process of reason based on perceptual observation. knowledge is personal knowledge is primarily a tool of thought knowledge is secondarily a tool of communication knowledge consists of true concepts and true propositions NOTES: A concept, like a proposition, is true if it has referents in reality; otherwise it is false. Words and sentences are the concrete symbols which denote concepts and propositions. How do I organize it? ===================== How do I minimize the size? use a hierarchy What's important to me? choose hierarchy structure according to my purpose How do I describe it? =====================
hierarchy outline definitions: A concept is a mental integration of two or more units possessing the same distinguishing characteristic(s), with their particular measurements omitted. A definition is a statement which identifies the nature of the units subsumed under the concept. Context is all knowledge currently available Knowledge Representation language: entity isin relationship=infon entity has attribute=value entity haspart part=count entity do action=event event changes eobject from attribute=initial to attribute=final event1 causes event2 relation has format = "class:1; class:2; ...; class:n", meaning = "... $1 ... $2 ... $n ..." concept isa* existent concept isa genus concept is alias concept is genus with differentia concept ise unit concept is either unit1 or unit2 or ... # NOTE: this is a disjunction of units, not a set of units knit isa knowledge # knowledge unit knit has view=v at space=s, time=t, view=v knit := I do identify existent
General References