Foundation

Foundations are absolutely vital in engineering something.  A foundation is the underlying system of principles, definitions, and organizing structures that makes higher‑level reasoning, communication, and knowledge possible. A foundation is the base layer of meaning that everything else depends on. A foundation: establishes the primitives, defines the rules, sets the constraints, determines what is possible, ensures consistency, enables interoperability.

A foundation is the ground truth of a domain. Meaning is intersubjective. Communication is impossible if there is no mutual cognitive agreement and understanding. Shared understanding is important.  This blog post is an attempt to move closer to a shared understanding.

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Symbols, when arranged into structures, become meaningful only through semantic mappings that generate concepts; a theory then specifies those concepts and their relations, and facts are the concrete assertions that instantiate those concepts in the world. A concept is an abstract unit of meaning, while a fact is a concrete instance of a concept realized in actual circumstances.

Data are raw observations or measurements that have not yet been interpreted; information is data organized into structures so that semantic mappings can apply; knowledge is the validated understanding that emerges when concepts, theories, and facts are integrated into a coherent whole. In this stack, data become information through structure, information becomes meaningful through semantics, and knowledge arises when concepts and facts are connected by theory.

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Symbol: A symbol is a perceptible sign that has no inherent meaning. A symbol is pure form. A symbol is a mark, token, an encoding, or expression of some sort that stands in for something else but has no meaning on its own until interpreted. Some examples of symbols are the word "Assets" or the number “50,000” or the URI "http://example.org/Asset" or a  JSON key "liabilities" or an XBRL QName "us-gaap:Assets" or traffic light’s red circle. These are just marks. They do not contain meaning. They do not guarantee meaning. They do not create meaning. They are vehicles for meaning; not meaning itself.

A symbol is pure form, not meaning.

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Concept: A concept is an abstraction. A concept is an atomic unit of meaning. A concept is the generalized idea behind a category of things. A concept is an idea, a notion. Concepts are mental/intellectual constructs. Some examples of concepts are "Assets" and "Obligation" and "Risk" and "Event" and "Measurement". A concept has intention. A concept has properties.

A concept is independent of symbols.

A concept is independent of structures.

A concept is what semantics map to.

A concept is the atomic unit of meaning. Concepts are the smallest meaningful building block. Everything else; symbols, structures, semantics, models; exists to express, organize, or communicate concepts.

A concept is the abstract unit of meaning that symbols refer to, structures organize, and semantics map to, within a model.

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Meaning: Meaning is an agreement within a collective as to concepts, connections, conditions, facts. Meaning is not something inherent in just words or objects or symbols. Meaning is consciously and deliberately produced through shared human systems, shaped by context, and sustained by communities of stakeholders. Meaning is an agreement. Meaning isn't derived from a representation in a model. Meaning is interpreted, negotiated, and agreed to by a collective of humans. Meaning is intersubjective. Meaning is shared understanding.

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Understanding: Understanding is individual. Understanding is when something makes sense to you well enough that you can use it, explain it, or see how it fits into the context with or connects to other things you know. Understanding is a human trait that requires skill, experience, and judgement.

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Connections: (a.k.a. Relations, Associations).  Connections are the relations or associations between concepts. Some examples are that "Asset is‑a type of Resource" and "Liability has‑part Obligation" and "Event causes Change".

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Conditions: (a.k.a. Constraints, Restrictions). Conditions are a type of rule that a connection must satisfy.  Some examples of conditions are “Every Asset must have a controlling entity.” and  “Every Liability must arise from a past event.”.

Conditions  are rules which must be true for the theory to remain coherent, internally consistent.

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Fact: A fact is a measurement, an observation, a statement, a claim about reality. Some examples are "Cash is $50,000.” or “Inventory decreased by $3,000.” or “A sale event occurred on Sept 30.”

A fact is extensional: it identifies a particular instance of a concept. Facts instantiate concepts from the real world.

A fact cannot exist without a concept.  A concept is the idea which provides meaning. A fact is the world matching the idea.

Facts are expressed symbolically and structurally.

Facts are what theories explain and constrain.

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Structure: Structure is used to organize. Structure organizes symbols into patterns that can be interpreted. Symbols by themselves are inert. Structure arranges them into forms that can carry meaning. Some examples of structures are the information related to the layout of a balance sheet, a taxonomy hierarchy of types,  an RDF graph.

Structure is the syntax of meaning, the scaffolding that makes interpretation possible.

Structures assemble concepts, connections, conditions, and facts into meaningful configurations. Concepts are the building blocks, connections bind concepts together, conditions specify what is permitted within the assembly.  Structure is the pattern(s) formed by those bindings. Structure is the architecture of conceptual content.

Structure is the intermediate layer between symbols and semantics. Without structure: symbols cannot be interpreted, semantics cannot map, concepts cannot be generated, theory cannot constrain, organization cannot be achieved, facts cannot instantiate.

Structure is the bridge between raw symbolic expression and interpretable conceptual meaning.

Structure is part of a model. Structure is the unit of organization inside a model.

Structures give shape to concepts, form the building blocks of models, and provide the organizational scaffolding that theories constrain and facts instantiate.

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Model: Models are used to organize. Models are made of structures. A model is the concrete, structured realization of a conceptualization. A model is the assembled form of the knowledge, built from structures, and constrained by the conditions of the conceptualization. provided by a theory.

A model is one valid way of arranging those allowed concepts, connections, conditions, structures, and facts.

A model assembles structures into a coherent whole.

A model provides an environment in which facts can live. 

A model satisfies all specified conditions.

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Theory: A theory organizes and constraints concepts. A theory is a conceptualization. A conceptualization defines what is allowed. A theory is the explicit, rule‑governed explanation of how the concepts, connections, structures, conditions, and facts of a domain interact to produce coherent meaning.

A theory is the logic of the domain.

A theory explains how a domain works. A theory defines the core concepts within a domain, the meaning of those concepts.

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Domain: A domain is an area of knowledge, area of interest, community of practice, collective, field, subject domain, universe of discourse, society.  A domain is a highly organized socially constructed aggregation of shared knowledge (a.k.a. corpus) for a distinct subject matter.  Subject matter experts (SMEs) create, use, and maintain an area of knowledge.

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Knowledge: Knowledge is the most precious kind of information and consists not just of simple analysis, but of crucial insights that combine information with context. Knowledge is information that has been interpreted, connected to experience, and made actionable. Knowledge is interpreted information which is understood within some conceptual framework (a.k.a. shared definition, area of knowledge) giving the information meaning.


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