Roberto Poli

Theory and Applications of Ontology: Computer Applications

Ontology was once understood to be the philosophical inquiry into the structure of reality: the analysis and categorization of what there is. Recently, however, a field called ontology has become part of the rapidly growing research industry in information technology. The two fields have more in common than just their name.Theory and Applications of Ontology is a two-volume anthology that aims to further an informed discussion about the relationship between ontology in philosophy and ontology in information technology. It fills an important lacuna in cutting-edge research on ontology in both fields, supplying stage-setting overview articles on history and method, presenting directions of current research in either field, and highlighting areas of productive interdisciplinary contact.Theory and Applications of Ontology: Computer Applications presents ontology in ways that philosophers are not likely to find elsewhere. The volume offers an overview of current research in ontology, distinguishing basic conceptual issues, domain applications, general frameworks, and mathematical formalisms. It introduces the reader to current research on frameworks and applications in information technology in ways that are sure to invite reflection and constructive responses from ontologists in philosophy.

Ontological methodology

The interest in ontology may peter out unless three problems are addressed: What are the boundaries of ontology? What types are there of ontology? What is the structure of ontology? After distinguishing three main kinds of information (ontological, quasi-ontological and non-ontological) and three types of ontologies (descriptive, formal and formalized), the paper presents a few basic ontological sub-theories (theory of particulars, of levels of reality, of wholes, parts and boundaries, and the intensive-extensive opposition for determinations). The methodology of domain analysis is further addressed and the distinction between a domains structure and the scheme of the canonical item of a domain is introduced.

The School of Franz Brentano

Introduction. Brentano and his School: Reassembling the Puzzle L. Albertazzi, et al. 1. Franz Brentano (1838-1917) M. Libardi. Part I: The Pupils. 2. Anton Marty (1847-1914) L. Albertazzi. 3. Carl Stumpf (1848-1936) K. Schumann. 4. Alexius Meinong (1853-1920) D. Jacquette. 5. Christian von Ehrenfels (1859-1932) R. Fabian. 6. E. Husserl (1859-1938) L. Albertazzi. 7. Kazimierz Twardowski (1866-1938) R. Poli. Part II: Topics and Influences. 8. Act, Content, and Object W. Baumgartner. 9. Intentionality J. Brandl. 10. Higher-Order Objects P. Bozzi. 11. Logic in the Brentano School P. Simons. 12. Logic and the Sachverhalt B. Smith. 13. Truth Theories R. Poli. 14. Reism in the Brentanist Tradition J. Wolenski. 15. Theories of Values L. Dappiano. 16. From Kant to Brentano L. Albertazzi. Index of Topics. Index of Names.

Descriptive, Formal and Formalized Ontologies

I shall distinguish descriptive, formal and formalized ontology. Each of these ontologies comes in two guises: domain-dependent and domain-independent. Domain-dependent ontologies concern categorically closed regions of being; on the other hand, a domain-independent ontology may be properly called general ontology.

Theory and Applications of Ontology: Philosophical Perspectives

Ontology: The Categorial Stance.- Particulars.- The Ontology of Mereological Systems: A Logical Approach.- Causation.- Actualism Versus Possibilism in Formal Ontology.- Dispositions and Response-Dependence Theories.- Properties.- Boundary Questions Between Ontology and Biology.- The Ontology of Perception.- Interactive Knowing: The Metaphysics of Intentionality.- The Role of Logic and Ontology in Language and Reasoning.- Ontologies in the Legal Domain.- Ontology in Economics.- Ontology and Phenomenology.- Phenomenology and Ontology in Nicolai Hartmann and Roman Ingarden.- Ontology and Methodology in Analytic Philosophy.- Hermeneutic Ontology.

The Interplay Between Ontology as Categorial Analysis and Ontology as Technology

The notion of ontology today comes with two perspectives: one traditionally from philosophy and one more recently from computer science. The philosophical perspective of ontology focuses on categorial analysis, i.e., what are the entities of the world and what are the categories of entities? Prima facie, the intention of categorial analysis is to inventory reality. The computer science perspective of ontology, i.e., ontology as technology, focuses on those same questions but the intention is distinct: to create engineering models of reality, artifacts which can be used by software, and perhaps directly interpreted and reasoned over by special software called inference engines, to imbue software with human level semantics. Philosophical ontology arguably begins with the Greek philosophers, more than 2,400 years ago. Computational ontology (sometimes called “ontological” or “ontology” engineering) began about 15 years ago.

Ontology: The Categorial Stance

The chapter is organized into three main sections. The first section (paragraphs 1–4) presents basic preliminary distinctions, such as those (1) between ontology and metaphysics, (2) among descriptive, formal and formalized ontologies, (3) between pure ontology and its presentations, and (4) between ontology and epistemology. The second section (paragraphs (5–7) is substantive. After defending the idea of ontology as the theory of the most general categories, and presenting the difference between substance and its determinations, the chapter claims that proper understanding of substance requires at least six different theories, five directly dealing with its internal configuration and one dealing with both internal and external aspects. These six ontological sub-theories address the following problems: (1) the differences among such general categories as object, process, event, state of affairs, stuff, group etc.; (2) classification; (3) structure, or types of whole and their parts; (4) chronotopoids, or types of spaces and times; (5) interactions, or forms of causation; and (6) levels of reality, or the distinction among the basic regions of reality, such as the material, the psychological and the social ones. The third section (paragraphs 8–11) touches briefly upon some of the remaining issues, for instance determinations, the substance-determination relation and predication and non-commutative categorical frameworks.

The Theory of Levels of Reality and the Difference between Simple and Tangled Hierarchies

The main features of the theory of level of reality are presented. The conceptual framework according to which levels follow a linear, brick-like order is opposed to a more sophisticated, “tangled” framework.

Multi-leveled objects: color as a case study.

The paper presents color as a case study for the analysis of phenomena that pertain to several levels of reality and are typically framed by different sciences and disciplines. Color, in fact, is studied by physics, biology, phenomenology, and esthetics, among others. Our thesis is that color is a different entity for each level of reality, and that for this reason color generates different observables in the epistemologies of the different sciences. By analyzing color as a paradigmatic case of an entity naturally spreading over different levels of reality, the paper raises the question as to whether making explicit the usually implicit ontological assumptions embedded within the different observables exploited by the different sciences may eventually clarify some of the difficulties of developing a comprehensive theory of color.

Social Time as a Multidimensional Category

The paper proposes to understand social time through the lens of two different multidimensional grids, one focused on the experience of time and therefore grounded in present perceptions and one focused on the interactions between the three temporal modes of past, present, and future.