Some other suggestions for names of this Class, following my enumeration of examples prompted by Hilmar's post:
BiologicalUnit BiologicalItem BiologicalInstance BiologicalObject BiologicalRepresentative OrganismalUnit OrganismUnit UnitOrganism OrganismInstance OrganismalEntity
I tend not to like "Instance", because (as already stated), all classes have instances so it's redundant, and if meant in a different way, then we have confusion of homonymy. However, if that's what people really like, I won't fight it.
I would prefer "Biological" as a prefix, rather than "Life", because as far as I can tell, they mean essentially the same thing, so in my opinion it's best to go with the more scientific term.
Aloha, Rich
-----Original Message----- From: tdwg-content-bounces@lists.tdwg.org [mailto:tdwg-content- bounces@lists.tdwg.org] On Behalf Of Chuck Miller Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2011 7:32 PM To: Gregor Hagedorn; Nico Cellinese Cc: tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org Subject: Re: [tdwg-content] New terms need resolution: "Individual"
"a (meta-) population is a LifeInstance" does seem to make sense to me.
"a (meta-) population is a taxon" does not make sense to me. Nor does "a (meta-) population is an Organism"
But "a (meta-) population is a TaxonInstance" sort of makes sense, but
Rich
dislikes the inherent ambiguity that occurs when using the string "taxon"
or
"taxa" in a case like this because it opens the can of worms about names
and
concepts and spins off into endless related, but disassociated, debates.
The
word "taxon" has several meanings that can only be understood by a clear context within which the word is used or by an accompanying long
definition
that spells out which meaning is being used. Rich has written on this
multiple
times.
Chuck
-----Original Message----- From: tdwg-content-bounces@lists.tdwg.org [mailto:tdwg-content-bounces@lists.tdwg.org] On Behalf Of Gregor Hagedorn Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2011 12:18 PM To: Nico Cellinese Cc: tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org Subject: Re: [tdwg-content] New terms need resolution: "Individual"
((who would not forgive you?))
but you think "Organism" includes "population" and metapopulation? We are defining is-a relationships here (subclassing was already discussed), so
"a
(meta-) population is an organism" should make sense. It does not to me.
Gregor _______________________________________________ tdwg-content mailing list tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-content _______________________________________________ tdwg-content mailing list tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-content