Semantic Interoperability - Part II

Bertram Russell set forth his landmark thesis that mathematics and logic are identical in his book: The Pinciples of Mathematics (1903 reissued 1996). Russell said that symbolic logic is the study of various general types of deductions. The word symbolic indicates that mathematical symbols can be utilized. Russell said that the subject of Symbolic Logic consists of three parts, the calculus of propositions, the calculus of classes, and the calculus of relations.

In his explanation of the calculus of classes, Russell indicated that symbolic logic has as its "lair" the intermediate positions between pure extension and pure intension. Ten years ago, in my work related to the 1999 version of the United States Health Information Knowledgebase (USHIK) I began developing a "visual calculus" using Venn diagrams as a computational metaphor for examining mixed sets (containing any type of object or entity) in the intermediate region between pure extension and pure intension.

The work of the various HITSP Committees and this moment in history has re-newed my interest in theoretical work relating to the USHIK. The HITSP Foundations Committee's paper on Harmonization Principles and Processes defines value sets (on page 12) as follows:

My next blog will be: Semantic Interoperability - Part III and will relate to Venn diagrams.

(to be continued)