Objects, events, qualities: an introduction to formal ontological distinctions in DOLCE
Posted under: Course and Workshop Descriptions; Logic and Language.
This course is intended to introduce the student to the formal distinctions among basic ontological categories, such as objects, events, and qualities. These categories will be characterized in an axiomatic way, using the analytic tools of so-called formal ontology, which builds on general notions such as parthood, dependence, identity, constitution. We shall discuss in particular the foundational choices behind the DOLCE ontology (http://www.loa-cnr.it/DOLCE.html), an axiomatic upper-level ontology being used for various purposes by a growing community of researchers, which has been designed to provide some ontological ground to commonsense natural language expressions.
Starting from classic puzzles related to basic ontological choices, such as those concerning spatial co-localization and temporal change, we shall discuss DOLCE’s foundational choices in comparison with alternative philosophical options.
As a conclusion, we shall also show possible ways to use the distinctions we presented as a basis for application ontologies easier to understand, integrate, and maintain.
Lectures:
1) Ontological and semantic puzzles.
2) Properties, concepts, and qualities.
3) Persistence through time: objects vs. events.
4) Change, constitution and supervenience.
5) Using basic ontological categories to build application ontologies.
Further particulars (e.g, prerequisites):
Basic knowledge on first order logic and model theory.
Note: this is not an introductory course on the methodology to develop computational ontologies, but rather a critical presentation of specific ontological choices (with a few methodological considerations).
