1. Introduction
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Functions in Basic Formal Ontology
Applied Ontology 11 (2016) 103–128 103 DOI 10.3233/AO-160164 IOS Press Functions in Basic Formal Ontology Andrew D. Spear a,∗, Werner Ceusters b and Barry Smith c a Philosophy Department, Grand Valley State University, 1 Campus Drive, Allendale, MI 49401, USA Tel.: +1 616 331 2847; Fax: +1 616 331 2601; E-mail: [email protected] b Departments of Biomedical Informatics and Psychiatry, University at Buffalo, 77 Goodell street, Buffalo, NY 14203, USA E-mail: [email protected] c Department of Philosophy, University at Buffalo, 135 Park Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA E-mail: [email protected] Abstract. The notion of function is indispensable to our understanding of distinctions such as that between being broken and being in working order (for artifacts) and between being diseased and being healthy (for organisms). A clear account of the ontology of functions and functioning is thus an important desideratum for any top-level ontology intended for application to domains such as engineering or medicine. The benefit of using top-level ontologies in applied ontology can only be realized when each of the categories identified and defined by a top-level ontology is integrated with the others in a coherent fashion. Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) has from the beginning included function as one of its categories, exploiting a version of the etiological account of function that is framed at a level of generality sufficient to accommodate both biological and artifactual functions. This account has been subjected to a series of criticisms and refinements. We here articulate BFO’s account of function, provide some reasons for favoring it over competing views, and defend it against objections. -
A Definition of Ontological Category
Two Demarcation Problems In Ontology Pawel Garbacz Department of Philosophy John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland Abstract his or her research interests. Or if not, then everything goes into the scope. In this paper I will attempt to characterise the difference be- This paper is then about the proper subject matter of ap- tween ontological and non-ontological categories for the sake of a better understanding of the subject matter of ontology. plied ontology. I will attempt to draw a demarcation line My account of ontological categories defines them as equiva- between ontological and non-ontological categories. To this lence classes of a certain family of equivalence relations that end I will search for the proper level of generality of the lat- are determined by ontological relations. As a result, the de- ter by looking at how philosophical ontology defines its sub- marcation problem for ontological categories turns out to be ject matter. I will discuss a number of attempts to capture the dependent on the demarcation problem for ontological rela- specific nature of the ontological categories, as they are used tions. in philosophy, and on the basis of this survey I outline my own proposal. The main point of my contribution is the idea Introduction that ontological categories are the most general categories that cut the reality at its joints, where cutting is provided There are a lot of ontologies out there. (Ding et al., 2005) by ontological relations. In consequence it will turn out that claim to harvest from the Internet more than 300 000 Se- this account depends on how one can draw a demarcation mantic Web documents, of which 1.5% may be unique on- line between ontological and non-ontological relations. -
Anthropocentrism
Lecture 11: Anthropocentrism • Anthropocentrism and intrinsic value • Is anthropocentrism a good environmental philosophy? • Transformative power of nature • Problems with transformative power Friday, October 18, 2013 Topics • Anthropocentrism and intrinsic value • Is anthropocentrism a good environmental philosophy? • Transformative power of nature • Problems with transformative power Friday, October 18, 2013 Anthropocentrism • Human-centered • We only have direct moral obligations towards people • Animals only have instrumental value (that is, insofar as they are useful for our purposes). They don’t have intrinsic value (that is, in their own right). Friday, October 18, 2013 Anthropocentrism • The idea of intrinsic value is mysterious. (“the value it has all by itself”) • Usually, to say that something has value is to say that someone values it. Value presupposes a valuer (‘eye of the beholder’) • Value is typically not intrinsic to a thing, but “projected on it” by another (relative not absolute) Friday, October 18, 2013 Anthropocentrism • One reason that biocentrism and ecocentrism seem strange is that they entail that living things or ecosystems have intrinsic value - that is, it has value even if nobody values it. Friday, October 18, 2013 Kantianism • Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) • Kant believed that human beings possess intrinsic value. I value I value myself! food • This is because, unlike non- and sex humans, I can value myself. Consequently, I do not derive my value externally, but intrinsically. Friday, October 18, 2013 Kantianism • He also believed that only human beings have intrinsic value. That’s because only human beings have the self- awareness and reasoning capacity to value themselves. • This placed them in a unique moral category Friday, October 18, 2013 Direct and Indirect Obligations • Our direct moral obligations to others stems from a recognition of their intrinsic value. -
An Introduction to Philosophy
An Introduction to Philosophy W. Russ Payne Bellevue College Copyright (cc by nc 4.0) 2015 W. Russ Payne Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document with attribution under the terms of Creative Commons: Attribution Noncommercial 4.0 International or any later version of this license. A copy of the license is found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1 Contents Introduction ………………………………………………. 3 Chapter 1: What Philosophy Is ………………………….. 5 Chapter 2: How to do Philosophy ………………….……. 11 Chapter 3: Ancient Philosophy ………………….………. 23 Chapter 4: Rationalism ………….………………….……. 38 Chapter 5: Empiricism …………………………………… 50 Chapter 6: Philosophy of Science ………………….…..… 58 Chapter 7: Philosophy of Mind …………………….……. 72 Chapter 8: Love and Happiness …………………….……. 79 Chapter 9: Meta Ethics …………………………………… 94 Chapter 10: Right Action ……………………...…………. 108 Chapter 11: Social Justice …………………………...…… 120 2 Introduction The goal of this text is to present philosophy to newcomers as a living discipline with historical roots. While a few early chapters are historically organized, my goal in the historical chapters is to trace a developmental progression of thought that introduces basic philosophical methods and frames issues that remain relevant today. Later chapters are topically organized. These include philosophy of science and philosophy of mind, areas where philosophy has shown dramatic recent progress. This text concludes with four chapters on ethics, broadly construed. I cover traditional theories of right action in the third of these. Students are first invited first to think about what is good for themselves and their relationships in a chapter of love and happiness. Next a few meta-ethical issues are considered; namely, whether they are moral truths and if so what makes them so. -
GMS 6805: Introduction to Applied Ontology Location
GMS 6805: Introduction to Applied Ontology Location: Online, TBA Class Hours: Wednesdays 1:55-3:50 pm Instructor: Mathias Brochhausen, PhD Office: 3226, Clinical and Translational Science Building Email: [email protected] Phone: 501-831-3119 Office Hours: By Appointment Course Description: Applied ontology is a sub-discipline of knowledge representation that develops resources that make the meaning of terms processable by computers to improve interoperability of data and to support reasoning with digital knowledge bases. This course introduces students to the fundamentals of applied ontology and its role in biomedical informatics. Students will learn what ontologies are, how they differ from similar resources and how they are implemented in knowledge management environments. Course Prerequisites: None, but PHI 6105: Seminar in Logic, or experience with symbolic logic, is an asset. Course Objectives: • Describe the need for semantic integration of biomedical data • Identify the components of the Semantic Web technology and the goals of Semantic Web Technologies • Describe how ontologies fit into the Semantic Web paradigm and the role of Applied Ontology within in • Understand the computational principles behind ontology development and implementation • Describe how ontological artifacts differ terminologies and other semantic resources • Articulate standards and criteria for good ontologies and evaluate ontologies in light of these criteria • Illustrate common pitfalls of ontology development • Create a domain ontology in an ontology editor such as Protégé • Construct queries that demonstrate an understanding of the logical principles of ontologies and the Semantic Web Course Texts: Required Tests: Antoniou, G. (2012). A Semantic Web Primer. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Arp, R. et al. -
Ontology, Ontologies, and Science
Ontology, Ontologies, and Science Gary H. Merrill This is the “final accepted version” of the manuscript, made publicly available in accord with the policies of SpringerNature. The final publication in the journal Topoi (April 2011, Volume 30, Issue 1, pp 71–83) is available via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11245-011-9091-x ABSTRACT Philosophers frequently struggle with the relation of metaphysics to the everyday world, with its practical value, and with its relation to empirical science. This paper distinguishes several different models of the relation between philosophical ontology and applied (scientific) ontology that have been advanced in the history of philosophy. Adoption of a strong participation model for the philosophical ontologist in science is urged, and requirements and consequences of the participation model are explored. This approach provides both a principled view and justification of the role of the philosophical ontologist in contemporary empirical science as well as guidelines for integrating philosophers and philosophical contributions into the practice of science. Introduction Metaphysicians, when explaining or justifying their calling, tend to be a mournful and defensive lot while at the same time extolling the intellectual, moral, and spiritual virtues of metaphysics and its practice. A classic example is found in Russell's The Problems of Philosophy where he argues that philosophy as a discipline is not quite as fruitless as it may appear: Philosophy, like all other studies, aims primarily at knowledge.... But it cannot be maintained that philosophy has had any very great measure of success in its attempts to provide definite answers to its questions.... It is true that this is partly accounted for by the fact that as soon as definite knowledge concerning any subject becomes possible, this subject ceases to be called philosophy, and becomes a separate science... -
Ontology-Based Approach for Structural Design Considering Low Embodied Energy and Carbon
This is an Open Access document downloaded from ORCA, Cardiff University's institutional repository: http://orca.cf.ac.uk/73163/ This is the author’s version of a work that was submitted to / accepted for publication. Citation for final published version: Hou, Shangjie, Li, Haijiang and Rezgui, Yacine 2015. Ontology-based approach for structural design considering low embodied energy and carbon. Energy and Buildings 102 , pp. 75-90. 10.1016/j.enbuild.2015.04.051 file Publishers page: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2015.04.051 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2015.04.051> Please note: Changes made as a result of publishing processes such as copy-editing, formatting and page numbers may not be reflected in this version. For the definitive version of this publication, please refer to the published source. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite this paper. This version is being made available in accordance with publisher policies. See http://orca.cf.ac.uk/policies.html for usage policies. Copyright and moral rights for publications made available in ORCA are retained by the copyright holders. Accepted Manuscript Title: Ontology-based approach for structural design considering low embodied energy and carbon Author: Shangjie Hou Haijiang Li Yacine Rezgui PII: S0378-7788(15)00350-3 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2015.04.051 Reference: ENB 5843 To appear in: ENB Received date: 14-11-2014 Revised date: 21-4-2015 Accepted date: 28-4-2015 Please cite this article as: S. -
A Confusion in Goodness
Forthcoming in Philosophical Studies The Pen, the Dress, and the Coat: A Confusion in Goodness Miles Tucker Abstract: Conditionalists say that the value something has as an end—its final value—may be conditional on its extrinsic features. They support this claim by appealing to examples: Kagan points to Abraham Lincoln’s pen, Rabinowicz and Rønnow-Rasmussen to Lady Diana’s dress, and Korsgaard to a mink coat. They contend that these things may have final value in virtue of their historical or societal roles. These three examples have become familiar: many now merely mention them to establish the conditionalist position. But the widespread faith in such cases is, I believe, unjustified. This is because, surprisingly, the pen, the dress, and the coat cannot have final value. I argue that the problem is internal: these cases are ruled out by every conditionalist account of final value. Further, the problem with these well-known cases applies to most other supposed examples of extrinsic, final goods. Thus nearly all cases given to support the conditionalist view cannot succeed. I suggest a kind of diagnosis: I claim that these examples are best seen as instances of sentimental value, rather than final value. I close by providing a brief account of sentimental value and explain how it relates to instrumental, intrinsic, and final goodness. Keywords: axiology, final value, intrinsic value, sentimental value The final value of a thing is the value it has for its own sake, or as an end. The intrinsic value of a thing is the value it has in itself or in virtue of its intrinsic features.1 Conditionalists hope to separate these two kinds of value. -
Introduction to Applied Ontology and Ontological Analysis
First Interdisciplinary Summer School on Ontological Analysis Introduction to Applied Ontology and Ontological Analysis Nicola Guarino National Research Council, Institute for Cognitive Science and Technologies (ISTC-CNR) Laboratory for Applied Ontology (LOA) www.loa.istc.cnr.it Applied Ontology: an emerging interdisciplinary area • Applied Ontology builds on philosophy, cognitive science, linguistics and logic with the purpose of understanding, clarifying, making explicit and communicating people's assumptions about the nature and structure of the world. • This orientation towards helping people understanding each other distinguishes applied ontology from philosophical ontology, and motivates its unavoidable interdisciplinary nature. ontological analysis: study of content (of these assumptions) as such (independently of their representation) 4 Ontological analysis and conceptual modeling Conceptual modeling is the activity of formally describing some aspects of the physical and social world around us for the purposes of understanding and communication (John Mylopoulos) Focusing on content Do we know what to REpresent? • First analysis, • THEN representation… Unfortunately, this is not the current practice… • Computer scientists have focused on the structure of representations and the nature of reasoning more than on the content of such representations Essential ontological promiscuity of AI: any agent creates its own ontology based on its usefulness for the task at hand (Genesereth and Nilsson 1987) No representation without ontological -
Musical Works: Category and Identity
1 Musical Works: Category and Identity A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) In the Faculty of Humanities 2013 Philip Letts School of Social Sciences 2 Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................... 7 Declaration ...................................................................................................................... 8 Copyright Statement ........................................................................................................ 8 Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................... 9 Part 1: Category ............................................................................................................. 10 Chapter 1: The Project ................................................................................................... 10 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................... 10 2: Answering the Categorial Question .......................................................................... 12 2.1: The Music Internal Problem ................................................................................... 14 2.2: The Central Judgments Concerning Musical Works .............................................. 17 2.3: The External Problem ............................................................................................ -
Natural Language and Its Ontology
1 To appear in A. Goldman/B. McLaughlin (eds): Metaphysics and Cognitive Science, Oxford University Press 2018 Natural Language and its Ontology Friederike Moltmann final version September 25, 2017 Abstract Natural language reflects its own ontology, an ontology that may differ from the ontology a philosopher may be willing to accept or even a non-philosopher when thinking about what there is, and of course it may differ from the ontology of what there really is. This paper gives a characterization of the ontology implicit in natural language and the entities it involves, situates natural language ontology within metaphysics, discusses what sorts of data may be considered reflective of the ontology of natural language, and addresses Chomsky's dismissal of externalist semantics. Key words ontology, natural language, reference, descriptive metaphysics, variable objects, tropes, kinds, existence, Chomsky, Fine Introduction Natural language, it appears, reflects in part our conception of the world. Natural language displays a great range of types of referential noun phrases that seem to stand for objects of various ontological categories and types, and it also involves constructions, categories and expressions that appear to convey ontological or metaphysical notions, for example ontological categories of various sorts, plurality, quantity, identity, causation, parthood, truth, and existence. But it also appears that natural language reflects ontological categories, structures, and notions that not everyone may be willing to accept, certainly not every philosopher, but often not even an ordinary person when thinking about what there is and the general nature of things. Most notably, natural language appears to involve a wealth of terms that display a rich ontology of artefactual, derivative, minor, abstract, and even nonexistent entities that philosophers generally tend to reject and even an ordinary person when thinking about what 2 there really is. -
Applied Ontology
Nouslerter Page' Applied Ontology: A New Discipline is Born he following appeared (in Ital dictions and inconsistencies often arise in life forms expressions, which ought to be af ian) in the distinguished Ital the law when, for instance, one type of en forded the protection of intellectual prop T ian newspaper Il Sole-24 Ore tity is forced into two mutually exclusive erty law? If so, are they expressions of the (said to be Italian equivalent categories (e.g., when software is consid sort which may be patented, or are they of the Wall Street Journal)on Sunday May ered to be both patentable and copy expressions of the sort which may be copy 24, 1998, as part of a full-page spread on rightable)." righted? The answers to such questions the Department's Marvin Farber Confer The growth in importance of ontology must reflect ethical, economic and other ence held in April: turns on the fact that, in an age of rapid considerations. But the questions them technological progress, legislators, jurists selves are ontological: they are questions The discipline of applied ethics already has and lawyers must grapple with constantly about how given entities are properly to be a certain familiarity in the Anglo-Saxon changing domains of objects. The expan categorized, and the task of providing an~ · world, above all through the work of Peter sion of trading blocks and treaty organiza swers to such questions can be aided Singer. Applied ethics uses the tools of tions, and the concomitant growth in im through the development of legal moral philosophy to resolve practical prob portance of international law, have sub ontological theories, theories of inrellel.'"tual lems of the sort which arise, for example, jected the processes oflaw-making and en property law, of artefacts, and of biological in the running of hospitals.