Editing Philosophical Research:Spaghetti containment procedures (section)

== Defining concepts through operators ==

All the previous sections of this guide have addressed creating understandable <em>body text</em> and <em>Item labels</em>, but there is one more way of making Items understandable regardless of readers' specific language: defining concepts through semantic equations. Here, the tools introduced by Wikibase, the overall conceptual space of Semantic MediaWiki, and {{TTS|Wavebuilder|Wave-builder}} assist in creating definitions that transcend natural language to use at most a few generalized abstract concepts common to all languages and the definition of language itself.

The <dfn style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;">consists of components</dfn> Property can be used to express the basic parts that are easily identifiable as part of a functioning whole. In some cases this will be the obvious divisions of something: <i>United States government - consists of components - executive branch; legislative branch; judicial branch</i>. In other cases this will include lists of claims about components of the Item having particular characteristics or functioning in particular ways: <i>ThunderClan - consists of components - cat - case of - Warrior</i>, <i>ThunderClan - consists of components - ThunderClan territory</i>, etc.

<dfn style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;">{{TTS|Wavebuilder|Wave-builder}} combinations</dfn> can be used to express a range of different relationships that combine two concepts into a third concept. Some combinations represent simple structural relationships: <i>signifier  WITH  signified  PRODUCES sign</i>. Other combinations represent physical interactions leading to causal events: <i>draw deck  WITH  drawing a card  PRODUCES  Deck card moves to hand</i>. Some combinations may be somewhat abstract: <i>lion  WITH  eagle  PRODUCES  griffin</i>. Some combinations may be abstract to the point of being described as "poetic": <i>paper  WITH  hurricane  PRODUCES  disorganized ocean of papers</i>. Overall, combinations with a literal explanation are preferred over combinations with a figurative explanation, although the major question to ask in any case is simply which combination has the best arguments or provides the most insight into the real world or defined hypothetical world the concepts come from.


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