Abstract
The idea of a SuperType is exactly equivalent to the root node of a typology, wherein multiple entity types with similar essences and characteristics are related to one another via a natural classification. In this chapter, we discuss the use of types as our general classification structure, and then typologies as modular ways to further organize those types. Further, Peirce was expansive in his recognition of what kinds of objects could be classified, explicitly including ideas, with application to areas such as social classes, human-made objects, sciences, chemical elements, and living organisms. Our typology design has arisen from the intersection of (1) our efforts with SuperTypes to create a computable structure that uses powerful disjoint assertions; (2) an appreciation of the importance of entity types as a focus of knowledge base terminology; and (3) our efforts to segregate entities from other constructs of knowledge bases, including attributes, relations, and annotations. Unlike more interconnected knowledge graphs (which can have many network linkages), typologies are organized strictly along these lines of shared attributes, which both is simpler and provides an orthogonal means for investigating type-class membership. The idea of nested, hierarchical types organized into broad branches of different entity typologies also offers a flexible design for interoperating with a diversity of worldviews and degrees of specificity. The best perspective to see the full listing of the typologies in KBpedia is to inspect the Generals branch of the KKO knowledge graph, which contains about 85 SuperTypes (typologies).
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Notes
- 1.
Some material in this chapter was drawn from the author’s prior articles at the AI3:::Adaptive Information blog: “Climbing the Data Federation Pyramid” (May 2006); “‘Structs’: Naïve Data Formats and the ABox” (Jan 2009); “Advantages and Myths of RDF” (Apr 2009); “structWSF: A Framework for Data Mixing” (Jun 2009); “Big Structure and Data Interoperability” (Aug 2014); “Logical Implications of Interoperability” (Jun 2015); “How Fine Grained Can Entity Types Get?” (Mar 2016); “Rationales for Typology Designs in Knowledge Bases” (Jun 2016); “Threes All of the Way Down to Typologies” (Oct 2016).
- 2.
- 3.
Aspects of Peirce’s definition of types have some interesting parallels to type theory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_theory), especially homotopy type theory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homotopy_type_theory), that we do not have time to pursue further here. In type theory, well-founded types are ones where we can define objects by primitive recursion and prove properties by induction (see Thompson, S., Type Theory and Functional Programming, Addison Wesley, 1991). Primitive recursion over Boolean properties (which is why dichotomous keys for classification are so useful) is an interesting link to type theory, as are type families and creating new types. Further, some proposed resolutions to improve the representation of subsets in type theories involve representing propositions distinct from types or as types.
- 4.
Philosophers often contrast realism to idealism, nominalism, or conceptualism, wherein how the world exists is a function of how we think about or name things. Descartes, for example, summarized his conceptualist view with his aphorism “I think, therefore I am.”
- 5.
For example, try this query, https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=“fine-grained+entity,” also without quotes.
- 6.
However, like the Chevy Malibu case described earlier, items that appear as instances in the putative typology may be expanded to become an eventual class (type), with its own instances, akin to the punning discussion in the prior chapter.
- 7.
For best interoperability with KBpedia, the SKOS reference should include the SKOS DL version; see M.K. Bergman, “SKOS Now Interoperates with OWL 2,” AI3:::Adaptive Information blog, February 10, 2011.
- 8.
UMBEL was a precursor to KBpedia first begun in 2006 and first released in 2008. KBpedia has now supplanted its earlier design.
- 9.
See http://kbpedia.org.
- 10.
For example, using the open-source Protégé ontology development environment (https://protege.stanford.edu/).
- 11.
The remaining portions of the upper KKO are shown in Chap. 8.
- 12.
Jack Park has questioned why chemistry appears in this schema, while physics and quantum phenomena do not. I agree those topics are worthy, likely under the Natural Matter node at the interface between Firstness and Secondness. Peirce does address these ideas a bit, and even posited something like the Big Bang (1888, CP 1.411–2). These fundamental perspectives on matter are an active area of research, though there are not many crumbs from Peirce on these topics. Still, as we learn more, I can readily see including such topics in the schema. As for the inclusion of chemistry and organic chemistry, we understand them better at present and they importantly demark the transition from natural matter to life. Chemistry is the laws or “habits” (Peirce’s term) for how matter interacts and what products (compounds) may result, so is a natural Thirdness with respect to matter. Organic chemistry provides the building blocks or possible compounds or substrates to life, so is equivalent to a Firstness regarding organic matter and life.
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Bergman, M.K. (2018). Modular, Expandable Typologies. In: A Knowledge Representation Practionary. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98092-8_10
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