Cidoc-crm Version 4.2.4 - Reference Document / quote 16 of 18
The complement of a class in the CRM
The complement of a class A with respect to one of its superclasses B is the set of all instances of B that are not instances of A. Formally, it is the set-theoretic difference of the extension of B minus the extension of A. Compatible extensions of the CRM should not declare any class with the intension of them being the complement of one or more other classes. To do so will normally violate the desire to describe an Open World. For example, for all possible cases of human gender, male should not be declared as the complement of female or vice versa. What if someone is both or even of another kind?