A Model-Theoretic Analysis of Asher and Vieu's Mereotopology
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To appear, KR-08 1 Model-Theoretic Characterization of Asher and Vieu’s Ontology of Mereotopology Torsten Hahmann Michael Gruninger Department of Computer Science Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering University of Toronto Department of Computer Science [email protected] University of Toronto [email protected] Abstract want to understand what kind of models the axiomatic sys- tem RT0 describes and what properties these models share. We characterize the models of Asher and Vieu’s first-order The goal is to characterize the models of RT in terms of mereotopology that evolved from Clarke’s Calculus of Indi- 0 viduals in terms of mathematical structures with well-defined classes of structures defined in topology, lattice theory, and properties: topological spaces, lattices, and graphs. Although graph theory and compare the classes to representations of for the theory RT soundness and completeness with respect to other mereotopological theories. Although the completeness a topological translation of the axioms has been proved, this and soundness of RT0 has been proven with respect to the in- provides only sparse insights into the structural properties of tended models defined by RTT over a topology T, this is a the mereotopological models. We prove that the models of the mere rephrasing of the axioms. The proofs show that the subtheory RT − are isomorphic to p-ortholattices (pseudocom- axiomatic system describes exactly the intended models, but plemented, orthocomplemented). Combining the advantages the formulation of the intended models does not reveal struc- of lattices and graphs, we give a representation theorem for tural properties that can be used to learn about practical ap- RT − the finite models of EC and show how to construct finite plicability, implicit restrictions, and hidden assumptions of models of the full mereotopology. We compare our results to representations of the Calculus of Individuals and the Region the theory. [Special emphasis in our work is put on the finite Connection Calculus (RCC). models, since these are dominant in real-world applications.] Primary motivation of this work is to give better in- sight into the axiomatic theory and to uncover problems 1 Introduction and assumptions that users of the ontology should be aware Mereotopological systems have long been considered in of. A characterization of the models of the axiomatic the- philosophic and logic communities and recently received ory allows us to reuse knowledge about the mathemati- attention from a knowledge representation perspective. cal structures in the mereotopological theory. Afterwards, Mereotopology is composed of topological (from point-set we can compare our results to the characterization of the topology) notions of connectedness and mereological no- Region Connection Calculus (RCC), as conducted in (?; tions of parthood. Point-set topology (or General Topol- ?) which uses the notion of Connection Algebras to describe ogy) relies on the definition of open (and dually closed) sets the RCC. Besides the characterization and analysis of RT, and extends standard set-theoretic notions of union, inter- the main contribution of this work is a comparison of the section, and containment with concepts such as interior, clo- suitability of different mathematical structures, in particular sure, limit points, neighborhoods, and connectedness. topological spaces, graph representations, and lattices, for a Uncertainty about differences in mereotopological sys- model-theoretic analysis and comparison of mereotopologi- tems, in particular about their implicit [inherent] assump- cal frameworks. In the long-term an exhaustive comparison tions, seem to be a major source of confusion that hinders of different mereotopological approaches within a strictly forthright application of even well-developed mereotopo- defined mathematical context is desired. It turns out that logical theories. This problem arises in the various theo- lattices and lattices as graphs are best suited because lattices ries for different reasons: some lack any formal represen- provide an intuitive way to model parthood relations. tation, leaving the user unsure about intended interpreta- Notice that we are only interested in a rigid mathemati- tions; others are formalized in first-order logic but lack a cal study to provide the community with a model-theoretic characterization of the models up to isomorphism. This pa- view on mereotopology for the example of RT0; we do per focuses on an instance of the latter problem – we an- not argue for or against underlying assumptions of different alyze the models of Asher and Vieu’s mereotopology RT0 mereotopologies. (?) in the style of a representation theorem using struc- tures from well-understood mathematical disciplines. We Serving the growing interesting in formal ontologies and upper ontologies, this kind of analysis can guide the selec- Copyright c 2008, Association for the Advancement of Artificial tion of a generic axiomatization of mereotopology for inclu- Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved. sion in upper ontologies such as SUMO, DOLCE, and BFO. To appear, KR-08 2 2 The Mereotopology RT of Asher and Vieu have been identified with it, we focus on Asher and Vieu’s Mereology investigates parthood structures and relative version of the theory where the completeness and soundness complementation, dating back to Whitehead (?) and proof ease the model-theoretic analysis. Notice that Clarke’s Lesniewski´ (?). The first formal specification of extensional and Asher and Vieu’s theories are more sophisticated that mereology was (?). For an overview of extensional mere- the RCC which does not distinguish individuals from their ology, we invite the reader to consult (?). The primitive re- interiors and closures, claiming such distinction superfluous lation in mereology is parthood (an entity being part of an- for spatial reasoning. But contradictory, tangential and other) expressed as irreflexive proper parthood, < or PP, or non-tangential parts as well as regular overlap and external as reflexive parthood, ≤ or P. The latter is usually a standard connection which all rely on open and closed properties are partial order that is reflexive, anti-symmetric, and transitive, distinguished in RCC. coined Ground Mereology M in (?). Moreover, most mere- ologies define concepts of overlap, union, and intersection 2.1 Axiomatization RT0 of entities. General sums (fusion), i.e. the union of arbitrar- The first-order theory RT0 of (?) uses the connection rela- ily many individuals, are also widespread. In all mereolog- tion C as only primitive. The theory is based on Clarke’s ical theories a whole (universe) can be defined as the entity Calculus of Individuals (?; ?), with changes to make the that everything else is part of. If differences are defined, a theory first-order definable: (1) the explicit fusion operator complement exists for every individual relative to the mere- is eliminated, it is claimed unnecessary; and (2) the con- ological whole. More controversial is whether mereology cept of weak contact, WCont, is added. To eliminate trivial should allow atoms, i.e. individuals without proper parts that models, RT0 requires at least one external connection and are the smallest entities of interest. Some theories are atom- one weak contact (A11, A12). Some ontological and cogni- less while others explicitly force the existence of atoms (?); tive issues are also addressed, see (?). RT0 follows the strat- mereotopology inherits this controversy: it can be defined egy called “Topology as Basis for Mereology” for defining atomless, atomic, or make no assumption about atomism at mereotopology and does not contain an explicit mereology. all. Consequently, the parthood relation P is defined solely in Neither topology nor mereology are by themselves pow- terms of the primitive C which limits the whole theory to erful enough to express part-whole relations: Connection the expressiveness of C. For consequences of this kind of does not imply parthood between two individuals and dis- axiomatization, see (?; ?). connection does not prevent parthood as well as mereo- To construct models of the theory RT0 the following def- logical wholes do not imply topological (self-connected) initions are necessary. Except for WCont, these were al- wholes. To be able to reason about integral, self-connected ready defined in (?) and are comparable to those of other individuals, ways to combine mereology with topology are mereotopological systems. necessary. The different options to merge the two inde- (D1) P(x,y) ≡ ∀z[C(z,x) → C(z,y)] (Parthood as reflexive pendent theories are used in (?) to classify mereotopolo- partial order satisfying the axioms of M) gies. Bridging the gap between mereology and topology (D3) O(x,y) ≡ ∃z[P(z,x) ∧ P(z,y)] (Two individuals over- can be achieved by extending mereology with a topolog- lap iff they have a common part) ical primitive as applied in (?; ?; ?). More widespread (D4) EC(x,y) ≡ C(x,y)∧¬O(x,y) (Two individuals are ex- is the reverse: assuming topology to be more fundamental ternally connected iff they are connected but share no and defining mereology on top of it using only topological common part) primitives (“Topology as Basis for Mereology”). (?; ?; ?; ?) and the RCC (?; ?) use this method with a connection (or (D6) NTP(x,y) ≡ P(x,y)∧¬∃z[EC(z,x) ∧ EC(z,y)] (Non- contact) relation as only primitive and parthood expressed tangential parts do not touch the border of the larger in terms of connection. A third, less common way to merge individuals) topology and mereology was presented in (?) extending the (D8) OP(x) ≡ x = i(x) (Open individuals) mereological framework of (?) by quasi-mereological no- (D9) CL(x) ≡ x = c(x) (Closed individuals) tions (combining mereology with some topological idea) to (D11) WCont(x,y) ≡ ¬C(c(x),c(y)) ∧ ∀z[(OP(z) ∧ define topological wholeness. P(x,z)) → C(c(z),y)] (Weak contact requires the clo- As mentioned before, our focus are first-order sures of x and y to be disconnected, but any neighbor- mereotopologies. However, most of these theories either hood containing cl(x) to be connected to y) entirely lack soundness and completeness proofs, e.g.