© Roger M Tagg 2008, 2010
Welcome to FROLIO – a new attempt to merge philosophy and the "semantic web". This website is in process of continuous development.
This is one area where a full analysis has not been completed. I don't think this matters very much in relation to the core ideas of FROLIO, but it may give an idea of how the thinking goes. In this explanation, three groups are distinguished: human or animal sensation, human judgment and scientific measurement.
These attributes are mostly very subjective, i.e. particular to each individual. We think of most of them as experienced by humans, but many animals experience them too.
| Examples | Applicable to | Opposite | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beauty | People, animals, plants, views | Ugliness | |
| Emotional pleasure | Animals | Anguish | |
| Excitement | Animals | Boredom | |
| Feel to touch | Physical objects | More than one dimension | |
| Intensity of feeling | Animals | ||
| Interest | Animals | ||
| Longing, desire | Animals | Apathy | |
| Positiveness of mood | Animals | Depression | |
| Physical pleasure | Animals | Pain | |
| Preference | Animals | Indifference | |
| Randiness | Animals | ||
| Shock | Experiences | Equanimity | |
| Pleasantness of smell | Objects that emit a noticeable odour | May not be consensus | |
| Pleasantness of taste | Objects put in the mouth, or licked | May not be consensus |
These differ from the sensations above in that humans are expected to be able to articulate a "level" of the experience. In questionnaires this is often measured by choosing a figure on a scale of possible responses, e.g. 1 to 5, 0 to 10, "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree" etc (sometimes referred to as a Likert scale).
| Examples | Applicable to | Opposite | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Absoluteness | Opinion, commitment | Relativeness | |
| Acceptability, desirability | Proposal, assertion | ||
| Accuracy | Measurements, estimates | Sloppiness | |
| Agreement | Proposal, assertion, points of view | Distance | |
| Approval | Proposal | ||
| Autonomy | Parts of a system | Interdependency | |
| Balance | Parts of a whole | Lopsidedness | |
| Benefit | Proposal, change | Cost | |
| Certainty | Assertion | Doubt, questionability | |
| Closeness of relationship | Relationships (physical or abstract things) | Independence | |
| Closure | Issue, problem, question | Openness | |
| Coherence | Arguments, utterances, policies | ||
| Commitment | Opinions, groups | ||
| Competitiveness | Humans, animals, companies, products | ||
| Competition level | Markets | ||
| Condition (quality) | Animals, things | ||
| Consensus | Assertions, opinions | Disagreement | |
| Credibility | Assertions | ||
| Democracy | Regimes, societies | Dictatorship | |
| Detail | Explanations, surveys | ||
| Energy | Animals, systems | Inertia | |
| Evidence level | Theories, health products | Faith | |
| Fairness | Decisions, systems | ||
| Flexibility (attitude) | Opinions, systems | ||
| Generality | Conclusions | ||
| Helpfulness | Humans, suggestions | ||
| Identifiability | Individual objects, instances | ||
| Importance | Issues, people | ||
| Justifiability | Decisions, conclusions | ||
| Liberality | Attitudes | Meanness | |
| Maintainability | Systems, equipment | Throw away | |
| Naturalness | Behaviour | Artificiality | |
| Order | System, environment | Chaos | |
| Rationality | Argument, conclusion | Gut feel | |
| Readability | Written material, meter display | ||
| Regularity | Events, flows | ||
| Reliability | Gadgets, systems, people | Failure-prone | |
| Risk | Events | Confidence, sureness | |
| Roughness | Surface of objects, situations | Smoothness, evenness | |
| Strength of relationship | Relationships | ||
| Suitability | Tools, methods, clothing | ||
| Support level | Systems, procedures | ||
| Sustainability | Policies, procedures | ||
| Tact | Utterances | Insensitivity | |
| Variety | Events, outcomes | ||
| Vigour | Projects, activities | Laxity | |
| Violence | Practices, behaviour | Peace | |
| Volatility | Situations | Stability |
There is usually some numeric scale for measuring these, and possibly some sort of meter or measuring tool or apparatus.
| Examples | Applicable to | Opposite | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alignment | Physical objects | ||
| Amplitude (wave height) | Waves, inc sound, water | Flat calm | |
| Angle | Physical objects | ||
| Automation level | Systems, processes | Manual | |
| Bandwidth | Waves, inc sound, water | ||
| Brightness | Light sources, reflecting objects, weather | ||
| Capacity | Container objects | ||
| Colour | Light sources, reflecting objects | ||
| Conductivity | Materials | Resistance, insulation | |
| Count | Individual objects, instances | ||
| Density | Materials, individual objects | Sparseness | |
| Depth | Physical spaces, manufactured objects | Shallowness | |
| Detail | Descriptions, analyses | Broad brush | |
| Distance, length | Two locations | Proximity, nearness | |
| Ductility | Metals | ||
| Elasticity | Stretchable materials or objects | ||
| Electric charge | |||
| Fattiness, greasiness | |||
| Flexibility | Materials, objects | Rigidity, brittleness | |
| Flow | Liquid, electricity, moving objects | ||
| Force | Interactions between objects | ||
| Frequency, pitch | Waves, inc sound, water; events | Cycles per second | |
| Friction | Materials | Slipperiness | |
| Gender | Animals, some plants | ||
| Granularity, coarseness | Materials, grids | Fineness | |
| Height | Physical spaces, objects | ||
| Humidity | Atmospheres | Dryness | |
| Intelligence | People, animals, systems | Human IQ! | |
| Isotropy | Materials | ||
| Life cycle stage | Animals that have multiple stages | ||
| Money value | Pockets, wallets, accounts | ||
| Name, ID | Individual objects, instances | ||
| Obesity | Humans, animals | ||
| Permeability | Materials | ||
| Plasticity | Materials | ||
| Position | Any object, or material in a container | ||
| Probability | An event | ||
| Proportion, percentage | Any part of a whole | ||
| Quantity | Anything that can be measured | ||
| Rate of change | Anything that can be measured | ||
| Shape | Objects | ||
| Sharpness | Edges or points of objects | ||
| Smoothness | Material surfaces | ||
| Speed | Moving objects, relative to one another | ||
| Strength of bond | Adhesives | ||
| Stress, strain | Materials, specific objects, animals | ||
| Surface area | Objects | ||
| Symmetry | Objects | ||
| Temperature | Objects, atmosphere | ||
| Texture | Woven or knitted materials | ||
| Tightness (of seal) | Seals, screws, joints | ||
| Time interval | Not time stamp! | ||
| Variance, variability | Statistical distributions, observations | ||
| Viscosity | Material that can flow | ||
| Volume | Objects, materials | ||
| Wavelength | Waves inc sound, water | ||
| Weight | Physical objects, part of an issue | ||
| Width | Physical spaces, objects |
These link you, the reader, to more details about FROLIO. The core of this website is a set of pages about relationships - links to these are on the first table below. The index in the bottom row points to a set of "diatribes" or opinionated essays, about things the author feels particularly strongly about!
Some of these links may be under construction – or re-construction.
This version updated on 29th January 2010
If you have constructive suggestions or comments, please contact the author rogertag@tpg.com.au .