John F Sowa

John F Sowa – An interesting source of more philosophically based knowledge modelling material for the world of electronic communications from an ex-IBM consultant John F Sowa. [via Onno][via Matthew]. Biog includes MIT, Harvard and VUB (home of Heylighen and Principia Cybernetica), and as well as on-line parts of Sowa’s “Knowledge Representation” he includes a … Continue reading “John F Sowa”

West Met East – Metaphorically Speaking

[Review of Lakoff & Johnson “Metaphors We Live By”] West Met East – Metaphorically Speaking – Just returned from China. Suprisingly I didn’t get to read Northrop as much as expected, because I’d just received Lakoff and Johnson’s “Metaphors We Live By” the morning I departed. I’ve just finished the book itself on the flight … Continue reading “West Met East – Metaphorically Speaking”

Metaphor is Naturally Simpler

[via Apothecary] [Via MetaFilter] A classic Stephen Jay Gould essay, The Creation Myths of Cooperstown. Gould compares the real and mythical origins of baseball, as a metaphor for the general human preference for creation myths over messier evolutionary reality. IMOW Causality arising as emergence from complex layers (of what may be underlying scientific simplicity) of … Continue reading “Metaphor is Naturally Simpler”

Susan Blackmore Link(s)

Susan Blackmore Link(s) – Went back to look at Susan Blackmore’s provocative contribution to the QuestionCentre2003, blogged a couple of days ago. All I knew about Dr Blackmore previously was her Meme Machine fame – but not yet read it (who’s off to Borders tonight then ?!). I hadn’t spotted that Adam Hart-Davis was her … Continue reading “Susan Blackmore Link(s)”

Progress with the Platypus

Two weeks or more since I last posted – been incredibly busy recently – but in the last couple of days of air-travel and hotels I’ve managed to catch-up on reading Eco’s Kant and the Platypus. 80% finished now. Still on-message – much good stuff in here on the sociology of knowledge and so many … Continue reading “Progress with the Platypus”

Metaphors We Live By

Metaphors We Live By. From JOHO’s booklist. Blogged several earlier mentions about how metaphorical aphorisms often seemed closer to the truth than any apparently rational view of a reality being described. (Part of my main thesis in fact as “many a true word”.) Bizarre, but here’s a book by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson on … Continue reading “Metaphors We Live By”

Semantics References

List of Semantics References by Greg SandersFrom a 1993 Usenet correspondence from Greg Sanders, recently brought to the top of comp.ai.nat-langQuote … the following (alphabetically by author) are some of the booksI have come across that I regard as interesting (omitting material on Montague semantics). I make no claims that this covers the field. I … Continue reading “Semantics References”