Classes Categories Types and Shapes
Summary
- "an instance describes a given entity describing relevant characteristics (properties + values), while a class is an abstraction of that entity describing relevant properties alone."
- t.2024.10.14.10 what?! posted a request for clarification.
- bottom-up approach - the subordinate class or concept is the originator of the relationship (in the subject or first position), and the superordinate class or concept is in the right-hand position.
category vs class
What differentiates a category from another class is that the instances of that class are themselves classes:
Category: rdfs:subClassOf rdfs:Class .
Domestication: a Category: .
Domestication:Wild a Domestication: .
This relationship is different than for entities:
Entity: a rdfs:Class .
Animal: rdfs:subClassOf Entity: .
Animal:Fox a Entity: .
This distinction is subtle but important. Entity classes are specialized through subclass inheritance (an Animal: and a Fox: are both entities with a Fox: being a specialized kind of Animal:) and can be quite deep. Categories generally have a few broad specializations (such as units or enumerations), but are typically quite shallow.
Backlinks