Engineering ontologies: Foundations and theories from philosophy and logical theory

Ontology as a branch of philosophy is the science of what is, of the kinds and structures of objects, properties, events, processes and relations in every area of reality. ‘Ontology’ is often used by philosophers as a synonym for ‘metaphysics’ (literally: ‘what comes after the Physics’), a term which was used by early students of Aristotle to refer to what Aristotle himself called ‘first philosophy’. The term ‘ontology’ (or ontologia) was itself coined in 1613, independently, by two philosophers, Rudolf Göckel (Goclenius), in his Lexicon philosophicum and Jacob Lorhard (Lorhardus), in his Theatrum philosophicum. The first occurrence in English recorded by the OED appears in Bailey’s dictionary of 1721, which defines ontology as ‘an Account of being in the Abstract’

Energy, structure, soil and self-regulation in plant/soil systems: a conceptual model

1989 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.Typescript (Photocopy).A new concept is presented which suggests that in stable plant/soil systems, plants control the soil environmental factors that affect plant growth and the interactions among those factors by controlling system structure. The concept is based on the plant-control hypothesis and rhizocentric model of soil structural development. The plant-control hypothesis declares that in plant/soil systems energy is the primary resource, and structure an essential regulator of energy flows. The rhizocentric model of soil structural development in grass-dominated plant/soil systems describes the process which results in plant-control of soil structure, and, consequently, of energy and nutrient flows for such systems. In conjunction, the plant-control hypothesis and rhizocentric model form a conceptual model of control in plant/soil systems. The conceptual model may help explain the self-regulatory capabilities of stable plant/soil systems, and the causes of instability in some agricultural plant/soil systems. Examination of published data from various sources has revealed no case in which application of the conceptual control model did not result in logically consistent, reliable prediction of experimental outcomes, plausible interpretation of previously uninterpretable results, and often, formulation of testable new hypotheses. It is concluded that the control model -- and the plant-control hypothesis and rhizocentric model which it implies -- has enough credibility to merit further critical examination as a potentially useful conceptual tool for soil and agricultural science, biology, and ecology

Pieces of a Theory

A survey of theories of part, whole and dependence from Aristotle to the Gestalt psychologists, with special attention to Husserl’s Third Logical Investigation “On the Theory of Parts and Wholes”

Topological Foundations of Cognitive Science

A collection of papers presented at the First International Summer Institute in Cognitive Science, University at Buffalo, July 1994, including the following papers: ** Topological Foundations of Cognitive Science, Barry Smith ** The Bounds of Axiomatisation, Graham White ** Rethinking Boundaries, Wojciech Zelaniec ** Sheaf Mereology and Space Cognition, Jean Petitot ** A Mereotopological Definition of 'Point', Carola Eschenbach ** Discreteness, Finiteness, and the Structure of Topological Spaces, Christopher Habel ** Mass Reference and the Geometry of Solids, Almerindo E. Ojeda ** Defining a 'Doughnut' Made Difficult, N .M. Gotts ** A Theory of Spatial Regions with Indeterminate Boundaries, A.G. Cohn and N.M. Gotts ** Mereotopological Construction of Time from Events, Fabio Pianesi and Achille C. Varzi ** Computational Mereology: A Study of Part-of Relations for Multi-media Indexing, Wlodek Zadrozny and Michelle Ki

Generating Relation Algebras for Qualitative Spatial Reasoning

Basic relationships between certain regions of space are formulated in natural language in everyday situations. For example, a customer specifies the outline of his future home to the architect by indicating which rooms should be close to each other. Qualitative spatial reasoning as an area of artificial intelligence tries to develop a theory of space based on similar notions. In formal ontology and in ontological computer science, mereotopology is a first-order theory, embodying mereological and topological concepts, of the relations among wholes, parts, parts of parts, and the boundaries between parts. We shall introduce abstract relation algebras and present their structural properties as well as their connection to algebras of binary relations. This will be followed by details of the expressiveness of algebras of relations for region based models. Mereotopology has been the main basis for most region based theories of space. Since its earliest inception many theories have been proposed for mereotopology in artificial intelligence among which Region Connection Calculus is most prominent. The expressiveness of the region connection calculus in relational logic is far greater than its original eight base relations might suggest. In the thesis we formulate ways to automatically generate representable relation algebras using spatial data based on region connection calculus. The generation of new algebras is a two pronged approach involving splitting of existing relations to form new algebras and refinement of such newly generated algebras. We present an implementation of a system for automating aforementioned steps and provide an effective and convenient interface to define new spatial relations and generate representable relational algebras

Towards a Platonic theory of wholes and parts

The aim of this thesis is to introduce and elaborate a new conception of the relation between wholes and parts. Wholes, I propose, can be conceived of as 'Unities', in contrast to their currently familiar conception as 'sums'. Following a clue given in the distinction which Plato draws in the Theaetetus (203c-205e) between two conceptions of a complex entity, I argue that a similar distinction can be coherently developed in modern terms.Part I is preoccupied with general conceptual and historical background. Some theoretical constraints on any theory of wholes and parts are challenged and found to be merely apparent.In Part II the conception of wholes as sums is presented, and it is extensively argued that modern discussions of wholes generally presuppose this conception. This presupposition is shared not only by authors who subscribe to the 'classical' mereological theories of Lesniewski, and Goodman, but also by theorists of holistic sympathies (making use, for example, of the notion of an organic whole, or of a Gestalt) who rely on 'neoclassical' theories. It is urged that this conception suffers from serious, fundamental difficulties and drawbacks.In Part III the conception of wholes as Unities is introduced. A theory of Unities is laid down in systematic, formal detail, and the points of divergence from presuppositions of traditional theories are discussed. It is shown how in conceiving of concrete entities (of certain types) as Unities one is free from many difficulties which beset their conception as sums. Finally, it is shown how the theory of Unities provides a powerful tool for resolving some central metaphysical puzzles concerning concrete entities, especially puzzles associated with preservation of identity in the face of loss or gain of parts

Ontological foundations for structural conceptual models

In this thesis, we aim at contributing to the theory of conceptual modeling and ontology representation. Our main objective here is to provide ontological foundations for the most fundamental concepts in conceptual modeling. These foundations comprise a number of ontological theories, which are built on established work on philosophical ontology, cognitive psychology, philosophy of language and linguistics. Together these theories amount to a system of categories and formal relations known as a foundational ontolog