Relations, Roles and Relators

Relations in GOL are special universals with relators as its instances. Relations have a finite number of arguments. Relations are not extensional. There are concrete existing entities called relators with the power of mediating other entities. Relators have an internal structure defining the role each argument plays, as in loebe1.

In GOL, material and formal relations are distinguished. Material relations (and material relators respectively) are founded in other entities than only their arguments, they are inherently more. An example may be a contract, relating two individual agents. Then the contract is viewed as a material relator, mediating between the two agents. Formal relations hold between their arguments directly. Examples include $part-of$ and $greater-than$.

The mode of being of relators is still unclear. Their existence as abstract of concrete individuals, their relation to time and space is still discussed and open for further research.

Relations, relators and roles can be described much more thorough and more features can be outlined, but as this is not relevant to our work, please be referred to herre4. Facts and infons are also closely related to relations and relators, and they will be discussed in depth in section 5.1.