Thing Concept

A Thing Concept is an elementary concept that represents any kind of existence within ontological frameworks.

• AKA: Entity Concept, Object Concept, Basic Concept.
• Context:
  • It can typically be a (set of) Entities (i.e., physical entity or abstract entity).
  • It can typically be a (set of) Relations (i.e., causal relation or semantic relation).
  • It can typically be a (set of) Systems (i.e., entities, relations, and operations).
  • It can typically be a (set of) Phenomena (e.g., physical phenomenon).
  • It can typically serve as Foundational Element in thing knowledge representations.
  • It can typically support Thing Classification through taxonomic structures.
  • ...
  • It can often be Similar in attributes to another thing, and the similarity can be reported by a similarity function.
  • It can often be Near in space to another thing, and this distance can be reported by a distance function.
  • It can often be a member of an upper-level ontology.
  • It can often provide Thing Hierarchy through inheritance relations.
  • It can often facilitate Thing Identification through unique identifiers.
  • ...
  • It can range from being a Concrete Thing Concept to being an Abstract Thing Concept, depending on its tangibility aspect.
  • It can range from being a Simple Thing Concept to being a Complex Thing Concept, depending on its compositional structure.
  • It can range from being a Domain-Specific Thing Concept to being a Universal Thing Concept, depending on its scope of application.
  • ...
  • It can integrate with Thing Attribute System for property management.
  • It can connect to Thing Relation System for relationship modeling.
  • It can support Thing Inference Engine for knowledge reasoning.
  • ...
• Examples:
  • Thing Concept Categories, such as:
    • Physical Thing Concepts, such as:
      • Physical Entity for material existence representation.
      • Elementary Unit for fundamental physical component representation.
      • Visual Artifact for perceptible object representation.
    • Abstract Thing Concepts, such as:
      • Abstract Entity for non-physical existence representation.
      • Concept for mental construct representation.
      • Concept Cluster for related mental construct representation.
    • Relational Thing Concepts, such as:
      • Causal Relation for cause-effect connection representation.
      • Semantic Relation for meaning-based connection representation.
      • MemberOf Relation for set membership representation.
      • Non-Member Relation for set exclusion representation.
    • Task-Related Thing Concepts, such as:
      • Processing Task for information transformation representation.
      • Production Task for creation process representation.
      • Profiling Task for characteristic analysis representation.
      • Canonicalization Task for standardization process representation.
      • Word Mention Coreference Resolution Task for linguistic reference identification representation.
      • Schema Object Element Mapping Task for data structure alignment representation.
      • Statutory Interpretation Task for legal analysis representation.
  • Thing Concept Applications, such as:
    • Identifier for thing identification in information systems.
    • Distance Metric for measuring thing similarity.
    • Distance Value for quantifying spatial relationships between things.
    • High-level Concept for abstract thing conceptualization.
    • Human Memory Item for cognitive thing representation.
  • ...
• Counter-Examples:
  • System, which is a composition of thing concepts rather than a single thing concept.
  • Physical Phenomenon, which is a manifestation of thing concepts rather than a thing concept itself.
  • Biological Organism, which is an instance of a thing concept rather than the thing concept itself.
  • Human Being, which is a specific implementation of a thing concept rather than the thing concept itself.
• See: Nothing, Everything, SUMO Ontology, Observation, Referent, Role, Thing Set.

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