LiShi (Logical Interpretations of Selected Historical interpretations)
Introduction
Welcome to LiShi, an ongoing effort to analyze and capture the way in which historical interpretation work is done in logical form. For what we are currently working on, see our Journal, for what we want to be working on the To Do List.
Partners, Collaborators and Sympathizers
Our current collaborators are:
- Research Cyc on Cycorp Inc's website
- Clio Knows on Source Forge
- Model Maintenance at http://www.blogspot.net
Sworn Enemies
- Description Logic and its adherents, who suck away research resources with their toy problems that never would cut the mustard for historiographical endeavors.
Categories
This Wiki is organized along multiple categories.
Subject Areas
Also known as historiographical sub-domains, subject areas correspond to specific sets of related research questions in historical writing. The domains themselves can be organized along a plurality of categories.
Research Activities
The overall approach governing LiShi is a methodology based on a canon of core research activities. Briefly, they are as follows:
- Learning about relevant prior research. This breaks down into two groups:
- Domain-Interior Prior Work is focused on subject matter that is directly relevant to the sub-domain of historiography.
- Interdisciplinary Interface Management keeps an eye out for relevant prior research in the related domains, such as cognitive sciences, philosophy, economics, etc., that are themselves too rich to be fully accommodated within the research activities directly.
- Working out the Theoretical Issues, either as philosophical criticism or arm-chair occupation with the conceptual models themselves.
- Exploratory research on exemplary data. This is a combination of études and of conceptual brain-storming, even if the models built are ad-hoc.
- Model building, where the theory and the data are brought together to combine into systematic explanations that satisfy scientific and argumentative expectations of quality.
- Formal experimentation is where the constructed models and the explanations that they provide are evaluated against understood results.
- Result Analysis, be they from the exploratory research or the formal experimentation, with their feedback for the overall research process.
- Dissemination and invitation of collaboration and contribution.
Planning
In addition to the To Do List, the acquisition of new information is organized by the Reading Queue.
Textual Resources
Over time, LiShi has developed a Bibliography of works relevant to historiographical research and to the problems of representing such research in logical formalisms. The Reading Notes reflect the discussion with these works.