[tdwg-content] A question of Ranks [was: Re: tdwg-content Digest, Vol 20, Issue 17]

[Bob Morris]

See also http://xkcd.com/816/ on the subject.

On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 11:26 PM, Bertram Ludaescher
<ludaesch at ucdavis.edu> wrote:
> No need to explode! Explosions happen in classical logics, but as already a
> link from Bob's link shows, paraconsistent logics can deal more gracefully
> with inconsistencies. I used to converse with some paraconsistent
> people. There's even a handbook on it:
> Handbook of Paraconsistency (Jean-Yves Béziau, Walter Carnielli and Dov
> Gabbay, eds). London: King's College, 2007. ISBN 978-1-904987-73-4
>
> Maybe it should be a companion field guide for the next Bioblitz, when
> dealing with, well, logical issues in taxonomy ;-)
> Bertram
>
> --
>
> Bertram Ludäscher
>
> Professor of Computer Science
>
> Dept of Computer Science & Genome Center
>
> University of California, Davis
>
> ludaesch at ucdavis.edu / daks.ucdavis.edu
>
> Phone: +1-530-554-1800
>
> On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 8:15 PM, Bob Morris <morris.bob at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Ah, but here's the rub when it comes to Propositional or First Order
>> Logic: If there is any assertion of Rich's---or anybody else's---about which
>> you, Nico C, both agree and disagree, then every assertion whatsoever of
>> yours is correct.  Now that part, I realize you already accept. The catch is
>> that every assertion whatsoever of yours is also false.  See
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_explosion
>> --Bob
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 3, 2010 at 10:49 PM, Nico Cellinese <ncellinese at flmnh.ufl.edu>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Wonderful to agree and disagree with you, yes indeed, even better with
>>> *spirit*!
>>>
>>> Jon Stewart would be proud of us both.
>>>
>>> I went to the rally in DC last Saturday!  We two are indeed sane :-)
>>>
>>> As for the utility of ranks -- well, I'm ready to agree to disagree, as
>>> long
>>> as we can both acknowledge that lots and lots of existing data "out
>>> there"
>>> are still classified (in a taxonomic sense) against the Linnaean
>>> nomenclatural system, for which dwc:taxonRank is a relevant (at least)
>>> attribute.
>>>
>>> Indeed! As mentioned in a previous email to you, I  can live (even happy)
>>> with dwc:taxonRank :-)
>>> Nico (who does not believe in species but thinks only clades are real)
>>>
>>>
>>> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
>>> Nico Cellinese, Ph.D.
>>> Assistant Curator, Herbarium & Informatics
>>> Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Biology
>>>
>>> Florida Museum of Natural History
>>> University of Florida
>>> 354 Dickinson Hall, PO Box 117800
>>> Gainesville, FL 32611-7800, U.S.A.
>>> Tel. 352-273-1979
>>> Fax 352-846-1861
>>> http://cellinese.blogspot.com/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> tdwg-content mailing list
>>> tdwg-content at lists.tdwg.org
>>> http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-content
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Robert A. Morris
>> Emeritus Professor  of Computer Science
>> UMASS-Boston
>> 100 Morrissey Blvd
>> Boston, MA 02125-3390
>> Associate, Harvard University Herbaria
>> email: morris.bob at gmail.com
>> web: http://bdei.cs.umb.edu/
>> web: http://etaxonomy.org/mw/FilteredPush
>> http://www.cs.umb.edu/~ram
>> phone (+1) 857 222 7992 (mobile)
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> tdwg-content mailing list
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>> http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-content
>>
>
>



-- 
Robert A. Morris
Emeritus Professor  of Computer Science
UMASS-Boston
100 Morrissey Blvd
Boston, MA 02125-3390
Associate, Harvard University Herbaria
email: morris.bob at gmail.com
web: http://bdei.cs.umb.edu/
web: http://etaxonomy.org/mw/FilteredPush
http://www.cs.umb.edu/~ram
phone (+1) 857 222 7992 (mobile)