Religious texts formalization

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Alex Shkotin

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Dec 29, 2025, 5:55:24 AM (4 days ago) 12/29/25
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Janet, following https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ontolog-forum/94CC2C73-C3C9-417B-B2DD-F227F7D6C8D0%40measures.org?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer


Firstly, only an expert with knowledge of the subject area can answer your questions reasonably.

Secondly, regarding formalization:

- each variable must be assigned to some primary type (sort) or a type defined based on the primary types.

For example, Hilbert has three primary types: points, lines, and planes.

- it's advisable to use HOL to avoid unnecessary variables.


I'll share my impressions:

Did the AI formalization preserve the meaning of the sentence? I don't think so, but you'd have to ask the experts. For me, the statement is rather poetic and metaphorical.


Furthermore, this statement is incomplete: in the beginning of what?

Furthermore, in the Russian version, the second proposition is "и слово было Богово" (="and the word was God's.") It says that God conceived the word.


I like the very clear ontological interpretation we know from computer game developers:

At some point in his divine time, he conceived the idea of creating the World and, over a period of time, created it.


Formalization of an individual sentence is only possible syntactically, i.e., the transition to syntactic structure as the first step of formalization. I like this (PDF) English is a HOL language message #1X.

But not every sentence in the presentation of a theory will be formalized. Only the essential ones. And only in a form that expresses the idea logically clearly and definitely. The link I sent Michael is precisely to works on the logic of religious texts.

I haven't gotten to that yet.


I also recently talked with AI about the metaphysics of high-level ontologies. It's a wonderful project that you wrote about. 

Beginning is here: https://chatgpt.com/share/695255cd-20d8-8010-87e4-b67792d9ace8.

The part about metaphysics here: https://chatgpt.com/s/t_6939923d92ac8191b67607ae47c5850c.


In fact, in formal ontologies, we have begun a powerful process of systematizing and concentrating scientific and technical knowledge. Their formalization is only the final phase. After that, they can be processed by algorithms more robust than LLM.


Alex


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