Brass Tacks #4

Note: I wrote this essay a while back, but it gives an idea of what my thinking is about this project.

While it relates to the Classes and Properties Table I was working on at the time, it is more important in this context for what Common Sense can do for us. While I don't think we ought to adhere to a vertical model of common sense for a knowledge base a la, http://www.opencyc.com I do think we share much in common--there's that word again!

The Importance of Being Common

While working on the Classes in our initial phase of tasks here, the choice was made to name the follow-on packages or groupings of classes, after the initial package, the "Common Derivative" classes and, while it was thought no one would have much difficulty understanding the term "Derivative" as Taxonomical and Ontological it seems wise to make the distinctions needed for the term "Common."

There are many denotative and connotative meanings for the term Common. It is one of the longer definitions and citations one finds in the dictionary, and for that reason alone it needs to have its use here distinguished for our purposes.

The first definition given by Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary is: 1 a: of or relating to a community at large. This is apt for a collection or category of classes for the HumanMarkup Language, since we certainly do have a large community in mind in our work, humanity at large.

It seems unnecessary to go into each of the various meanings in the definitions since our distinctions concentrate on just a few. The title of this paper, or section, is "The Importance of Being Common." The reason for this is that it conveys the message that for the HumanMarkup Language to perform the function we envision it must be shared, or held in common.

While this may appear obvious, there is an unfortunate likelihood that several meanings not intended could be taken. It is necessary, therefore, to state, in denotative distinctions, that the term Common does NOT mean: Coarse, in the sense of lacking refinement or low social status; Vernacular in the sense of relating to a nonstandard, regional, or specialized usage such as a dialect or historic period; Elementary in the sense of minimal propriety, capability or decency; Vulgar in the sense of lacking high moral standards or having poor taste as in art, music, literature, clothing, housing, etc; Plain in the sense of being inferior in appearance or substance; or Popular in the sense of a fad or short-lived trend in usage.

It is equally necessary to emphasize, again in denotative distinctions, that Common does mean: Widespread in the sense of being, as nearly as possible, universal in applicability while acknowledging that true universality is a goal, not a requirement; Ordinary in the sense of regular, customary and normal or normative as opposed to special or requiring specialized understanding; and Familiar in the sense of unremarkable and usual or expected.

A secondary consideration for the use of the term Common for our purposes is the fact that, to a large extent, what the HumanMarkup Language seeks to do, is to apply, in its connotations, Common Sense to Human Affairs and Human Communications. Unfortunately, all too often in Human Affairs, Common Sense is a practical oxymoron, or contradiction in terms. One of the primary reasons for the HumanMarkup Language is the lack of Common Sense in Human Affairs and Human Communications. This motivation is what leads us to set a goal for our work that may be difficult to connect to a primarily computational language. That goal is to reduce Human Miscommunication, which is seen as a largely, but by no means entirely, a cultural phenomenon. This misunderstanding is all too often the largest characteristic which some cultures that repeatedly engage in conflict with each other have in Common.

Perhaps the telling point here is that the definition of Common Sense is: 1 the unreflective opinions of ordinary men; 2 sound and prudent, but often unsophisticated judgment.

This is, of course, NOT what we mean by Common Sense. It is significant exactly because we do not INTERPRET this compound term in the way it is presented in the dictionary as a definition

Fostering unreflective opinions and unsophisticated judgments is not our goal. In Human Affairs and Human Communications, misunderstandings arise because opinions are not merely unreflective, they are largely unstated and are, in fact, acted upon without benefit of conscious thought as cultural attitudes or predispositions. Actual judgments cannot be made with or without benefit of thought, be it sophisticated or not.

THAT is Common practice. That does not take into account belief systems such as religions which can literally preclude conscious thought lest it foster heresy or other unacceptable thoughts and/or actions counter to those culturally ingrained belief systems. THAT is what we seek to counter and it requires introducing Common Sense into Human Affairs and Human Communications.

We are introducing a computer language that can provide searchable topic map referents for the widest, most Common, or shared, Verbal and Non-Verbal usages in Human Affairs and Human Communications in Digital Information Systems. By doing that we can introduce an almost unconscious use of Reflective Opinions (the reflection being the compilation of usages, and opinions being what is reflected in a mass or collective sense), and Sophisticated Judgments (the use of compiled meanings being the sophistication and judgment being the criteria we establish for what constitutes current accepted usages) into Human Affairs and Human Communications in Digital Information Systems.

In other words, we are attempting to take the Oxymoron out of Common Sense. And, that, is the Importance of Being Common.

(Second Note: Oxymoron, like Metaphor is a trope, or figure of speech, which uses figuration, a process that we have also studied in depth. However, this is the end of Brass Tacks for me. I will leave tropes to you all. It is fascinating, as is the philosophy of phenomenology that stands behind speech acts, but that is also something I will leave to you all.)

Rex Brooks
GeoAddress: 1361-A Addison, Berkeley, CA, 94702 USA, Earth
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Email: rexb@starbourne.com

Tel: 510-849-2309
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