¥Adding
richer formal ontologies does not reduce ambiguity of reference, but INCREASES it, by providing for finer ontological
distinctions.
¥
¥If all you
want to say about persons is that they have mailboxes and friends, then you can treat ÔpersonÕ as a
simple category. If however you want to reason about peopleÕs lifestyles, travel plans,
medical histories and legal rights, then you may be obliged to distinguish finer categories of
personhood. If you wish to include persons in a comprehensive Ôupper-levelÕ ontology,
then more arcane questions about personhood and how it relates to
existence must be answered.
¥
¥The more
one is able to say and is obliged to reason about, the more possible distinctions there are to be made: and as the knowledge
increases in scope, the more possibilities arise for making distinctions that
were formerly impossible.