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1
Formal Ontology and Information Systems
Barry Smith
http://ifomis.de
2
Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science
(IFOMIS)
Faculty of Medicine
University of Leipzig
http://ifomis.de
3
The Idea
Computational medical research
will transform the discipline of medicine
… but only if communication problems can be solved
4
Database standardization
is desperately needed in medicine
to enable the huge amounts of data
resulting from trials by different groups
to be fused together
5
How resolve incompatibilities?
“ONTOLOGY” = the solution of first resort
(compare: kicking a television set)
But what does ‘ontology’ mean?
Current most popular answer: a collection of terms and definitions satisfying constraints of description logic
6
Enterprise Ontology
A Sale is an agreement between two Legal-Entities for the exchange of a Product for a Sale-Price.
A Strategy is a Plan to Achieve a high-level Purpose.
A Market is all Sales and Potential Sales within a scope of interest.
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Wall Street Journal 11 July 2002
… that the original high hopes of B2B automation were not realized turns on the fact that there are many highly nuanced features of business transactions, known only tacitly to those involved, the failure to take account of which has had disastrous consequences for those involved
8
Gene Ontology
Molecular Function Ontology: tasks performed by individual gene products; examples: transcription factor, DNA helicase
Biological Process Ontology: broad biological goals accomplished by ordered assemblies of molecular functions; examples: mitosis, purine metabolism
Cellular Component Ontology: subcellular structures, locations, and macromolecular complexes;examples: nucleus, telomere
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Example from Molecular Function Ontology
hormone ; GO:0005179
%digestive hormone ; GO:0046659 %peptide hormone ; GO:0005180 %adrenocorticotropin ; GO:0017043 %glycopeptide hormone ; GO:0005181 %follicle-stimulating hormone ; GO:0016913
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as tree
hormone
digestive hormone peptide hormone
adrenocorticotropin glycopeptide hormone
follicle-stimulating hormone
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Problem: There exist multiple databases
genomic cellular
structural phenotypic
… and even for each specific type of information, e.g. DNA sequence data, there exist several databases of different scope and organisation
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What is a gene?
GDB: a gene is a DNA fragment that can be transcribed and translated into a protein
Genbank: a gene is a DNA region of biological interest with a name and that carries a genetic trait or phenotype
(from Schulze-Kremer)
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What is blood?
Unified Medical Language System (UMLS):
blood is a tissueSystematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED):
blood is a fluid
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Statements of Accounts
Company Financial statements may be prepared under either the (US) GAAP or the (European) IASC standards
These allocate cost items to different categories depending on the laws of the countries involved.
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Ontology’s job
is to develop an algorithm for the automatic conversion of income statements and balance sheets between the two systems.
Not even this relatively simple problem has been satisfactorily resolved
… why not?
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Applications ontology:
grew out of work in knowledge representation
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Applications ontology:
Ontologies are applications running in real timeontologies are inside the computer thus subject to severe constraints on expressive power (effectively the expressive power of description logic, a logic for manipulating hierarchies of concepts/general terms)
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Applications ontology cannot solve the data-fusion problem
because of its roots in knowledge mining
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different conceptual systems
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need not interconnect at all
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because of the limits of knowledge mining
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we cannot make incompatible concept-systems interconnect
just by looking at concepts, or knowledge – we need some tertium quid
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Applications ontology
has its philosophical roots in Quine’s doctrine of ontological commitment and in the ‘internal metaphysics’ of Carnap/Putnam Roughly, for an applications ontology the world and the semantic model are one and the sameWhat exists = what the system says exists
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again: semantic models need not interconnect at all
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What is needed
in some sort of wider common framework which is sufficiently rich and nuanced to allow concept systems deriving from different sources to be hand-callibrated
26
What is needed
is not an applications ontology
but
a reference ontology
27
Reference Ontology
… grew out of logic and analytic metaphysics
An ontology is a theory of the relevant domain of entities
Ontology is outside the computer
seeks maximal expressiveness and adequacy to reality
willing to sacrifice computational tractability for the sake of representational adequacy
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Belnap
“it is a good thing logicians were around before computer scientists;
“if computer scientists had got there first, then we wouldn’t have numbers
because arithmetic is undecidable”
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It is a good thing
Aristotelian metaphysics was around before description logic,
because otherwise we would have only hierarchies of
concepts/universals/classes and no individual instances …
30
Reference Ontology
a theory of the tertium quid
– called
reality –needed to hand-callibrate
database/terminology systems
31
Methodology
Get ontology right first
(realism; descriptive adequacy; rather powerful logic);
solve tractability problems later
32
The Reference Ontology Community
IFOMIS (Leipzig) Laboratories for Applied Ontology
(Trento, Rome, Turin)Foundational Ontology Project (Leeds)Ontology Works (Baltimore)Ontek Corporation (Buffalo/Leeds)LandC (Belgium/Philadelphia)
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Domains of Current Work in Reference Ontology
IFOMIS Leipzig: MedicineLaboratories for Applied Ontology
Trento/Rome: Ontology of Cognition/LanguageTurin: Law
Foundational Ontology Project (Leeds): Space, Physics
Ontology Works (Baltimore): Genetics, Molecular Biology
Ontek Corporation (Buffalo/Leeds): Biological Systematics
LandC (Belgium/Philadelphia): Medical NLP
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Some Historical Background on Reference Ontology
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Recall:
GDB: a gene is a DNA fragment that can be transcribed and translated into a protein
Genbank: a gene is a DNA region of biological interest with a name and that carries a genetic trait or phenotype
(from Schulze-Kremer)
36
Ontology
Note that terms like ‘fragment’, ‘region’, ‘name’, ‘carry’, ‘trait’, ‘type’
… along with terms like ‘part’, ‘whole’, ‘function’, ‘substance’, ‘inhere’ …
are ontological terms in the sense of traditional (philosophical) ontology
37
Aristotle
First ontologist
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First ontology
(from Porphyry’s Commentary on Aristotle’s Categories)
39
Linnaean Ontology
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Formal Ontology
term coined by Edmund Husserl
= the theory of those ontological structures
such as part-whole, universal-particular
which apply to all domains whatsoever
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Edmund Husserl
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Husserl outlines a new methodof constituent ontology
to study a domain ontologically
is to establish the parts of the domain
and the interrelations between them
especially the dependence relations
43
Logical Investigations¸1900/01
Aristotelian theory of universals and particulars
theory of part and whole
theory of ontological dependence
the theory of boundaries and fusion
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Formal Ontology
contrasted with material or regional ontologies
(compare relation between pure and applied mathematics)
Husserl’s idea:
If we can build a good formal ontology, this should save time and effort in building reference ontologies for each successive domain
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Basic Formal Ontology
BFOThe Vampire Slayer
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Basic Formal Ontology
Aristotelian theory of universals and instances
theory of part and whole
theory of ontological dependence
theory of boundary, continuity and contact
theory of states, powers, qualities, roles (SPQR-entities)
theory of processes
theory of environments/niches/contexts and spatial and spatio-temporal regions
47
BFOnot just a system of categories
but a formal theory
with definitions, axioms, theorems
designed to provide the resources for reference ontologies for specific domains
the latter should be of sufficient richness that terminological incompatibilities can be resolves intelligently rather than by brute force
48
Three types of reference ontology
1) formal ontology = framework for rigorous definition of the highly general concepts – such as object, event, whole, part – employed in every domain
2) domain ontology, a top-level system with a few highly general concepts, applies formal ontology to a particular domain, such as genetics or medicine
3) terminology-based ontology, a very large system embracing many concepts and inter-concept relations
49
MedO = medical domain ontology
including sub-ontologies:
cell ontology
drug ontology
protein ontology
gene ontology
50
other sub-ontologiesanatomical ontology
epidemiological ontology
disease ontology
therapy ontology
pathology ontology
the whole designed to give structure to the medical domain
(currently medical education comparable to stamp-collecting)
51
MedO
and its various sub-ontologies will inherit the definitions and axioms of BFO but will add new definitions and axioms of their own
52
Granularity
cell ontology
drug ontology
protein ontology
gene ontology
imply that we need also a theory of granularity
53
Ontology
like cartography
must work with maps at different scales
How fit these maps (conceptual grids) together into a single system?
IFOMIS is developing a theory of granular partitions designed to provide a framework within which different maps/views of the same reality can be combined together
54
Testing the BFO/MedO approach
within a software environment for NLP of unstructured patient records
collaborating with
Language and Computing nv (www.landc.be)
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L&C
LinKBase®: world’s largest terminology-based ontology
incorporating UMLS, SNOMED, etc.
+ LinKFactory®: suite for developing and managing large terminology-based ontologies
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LinKBase
LinKBase close to being a flat list
BFO and MedO designed to add depth, and so also reasoning capacity
by tagging LinKBase terms with corresponding BFO/MedO categories
57
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Part Two
Reference Ontology
and Agent-Based/Situated Computing
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Agents: encapsulated computer systems that are situated in some environment and are capable of flexible, autonomous action in that environment in order to meet their design objectives.
Interactions: Such agents invariably need to interact with one another in order to manage their inter-dependencies. These interactions involve agents cooperating, negotiating and coordinating with one another.
Organisations: The agents' interactions take place within some organisational context (eg a marketplace or some other form of electronic institution).
Particular prominence is given to automated cooperation, coordination and negotiation using techniques such as game theory, argumentation, computational economics, and belief-desire-intention models.
From Southampton IAM
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Shimon Edelman’s Riddle of Representation
two humans, a monkey, and a robot are looking at a piece of cheese;
what is common to the representational processes in their visual systems?
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Answer:
The cheese, of course
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Rodney Brooks
opposition between the Engineering view and the SMPA View
63
SMPA modelSense Model Plan Act
the agent first senses its environment through sensors
then uses this data to build a model of the world
then produces a plan to achieve goals
then acts on this plan
64
Proposal
SMPA belongs to the same methodological universe as Applications Ontology
If we want to build an intelligent agent within this framework, there need to be representations of the domain within which the agent acts which are inside the computer
65
Engineering Approach
The system embodies a number of distinct layers of activity (compare: faculties of the mind)
These layers operate independently and connect directly to the environment outside the system
Each layer operates as a complete system that copes in real time with a changing environment
Layers evolve through interaction with the environment (artificial insects/vehicles …)
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Brooks’ Engineering Approach
lends very little weight to the role of representations or models
At the same time it insists that AI should use the world in all its complexity in producing systems that react directly to the world
An ontology appropriate for this approach would have to include within its purview both the world and the system,
thus be essentially richer than the system alone
67
An intelligent system
must be situatedit is situatedness which gives the
processes within each layer meaningmeaning exists precisely in the relation
to the world,the world serves also as to unify the
different layers together and to make them compatible
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I know where the book is= I know how to find it
I know what the square root of 2489 is= I know how to calculate it
I know how to recognize the presence of a tiger
= by smell, noise … (in real-world context)
69
A. Clark, Being There
humans can accomplish much without building detailed, internal models; we rely on
Epistemic action =
writing one large number above another to multiply them with pen on paper
70
A. Clark, Being Therewe can rely also on
External scaffolding = maps, models, tools, landmarks, buildings, language, culture
we act so as to simplify cognitive tasks by "leaning on" the structures in our environment.
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Cf. Brooks:
Organisms, especially humans, find their dispositions in their muscle-tone and in the balance of hormones coursing through their blood streams, not just in their brains. They fix their beliefs not only in their heads but in their worlds, as they attune themselves differently to different parts of the world as a result of their experience. And they pull the same trick with their memories, not only by rearranging their parsing of the world (their understanding of what they see), but by marking it. They place traces out there which changes what they will be confronted with the next time it comes around. Thus they don't have to carry their memories with them.
Brooks, “Intelligence without Representation”
72
Not all calculations are done inside the head
Not all thinking is done inside the head
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Gibsonian Ecological Psychology
To understand human cognition we should study the moving, acting human person as it exists in its real-world environment
and taking account how it has evolved into this real-world environment
We are like tuning forks – tuned to the environment which surrounds us, and this is a social environment which includes records and representations
74
Gibsonian Ecological View of Information Systems
To understand information systems we should study the hardware as it exists embedded in its real-world environment
and taking account of the environment for which it was designed and built
Information systems are like tuning forks – they resonate in tune to their surrounding environments e.g. through their biological and chemical sensors
75
The World Wide Web
Vast amount of heterogeneous data sources
Needs: dramatically better support for richly structured ontologies in databases
+ ability to query and integrate across different ontologies (e.g. Semantic Web)
76
Quineanism:
They took ontology as the study of the ontological commitments or presuppositions embodied in the beliefs of experts
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Can we do better with the Gibsonian approach?
Test Domain:
Medical Terminology
78
So what is the ontology of blood?
79
We cannot solve this problem just by looking at concepts in Fodorian fashion
80
concept systems may be simply incommensurable
81
the problem can only be solved
by taking the world itself into account
82
and by recognizing
that the same object can be apprehended at different levels of granularity:
at the perceptual level blood is a liquid
at the cellular level blood is a tissue
83
This implies a view of ontology
not as a theory of concepts
but as a theory of reality
But how is this possible?
How can we get beyond our concepts?
answer: ontology must be maximally opportunistic
it must relate not to beliefs, concepts, syntactic strings but to the world itself
84
“Maximally opportunistic”
means:
look at concepts and beliefs critically
and always in the context of a wider view which includes independent ways to access the objects themselves
at different levels of granularity
and taking account of tacit knowledge of those features of reality of which the domain experts are not consciously aware
85
“Maximally opportunistic”
means:
look not at what the expert says
but at what the expert does
Experts have expertise = knowing how
Ontologists can have windows on reality, by focusing on categories, and can extract some form of knowing that
Gibsonianism: experts don’t know what the ontologist knows
86
Ontology must be maximally opportunistic
This means:
don’t just look at beliefs
look at the objects themselves
from every possible direction,
formal and informal
scientific and non-scientific …
87
Maximally opportunistic
means:look at the same objects at different levels of granularity:
88
Second step: select out the good conceptualizations
these have a reasonable chance of being integrated together into a single ontological system
• based on tested principles• robust• conform to natural science
89
Partitions should be cuts through reality
a good medical ontology should NOT be compatible with a conceptualization of disease as caused by evil spirits
90
A Theory of Contexts, Settings, Environments for Social Acts
X counts as Y in context C
What kinds of entities are social contexts?
91
Reinach
a priori ontological structures in the
social realm are transcategorial:involving experiences, intentions,
language, action, deontic powers, background collective habits, mental competences, records,
PLUS: social environments
92
The bonds
established by Reinach’s proto-structures of promise, claim and obligation …
can normally arise only within miniature civil societies,
within which special sorts of environmental conditions are satisfied
93
The Idea: Contexts can be Nested One Inside Another
Many settings occur in assemblies:
A unit in the middle range of a nesting structure is simultaneously both circumjacent and interjacent,
both whole and part, both entity and environment. (Roger Barker)
Compare the hierarchical organization of the human body into organs, cells, …
94
Human body
Rigidly hierachical, modular organization – with many things which can go wrong
Held together by physico-chemical bonds
95
Large-scale social organizations
are held together by micro-social bonds as described by Reinach
The whole organized as a rigidly hierarchical, modular nesting structure, with many things which can go wrong
96
Ecological Psychology
Gibson: Perception
:: Roger Barker: Society
Barker’s
Ecological Ontology of Social Reality
97
Barker on Unity of Social Reality
On Reinach’s transcategoriality:
“The conceptual incommensurability of phenomena which is such an obstacle to the unification of the sciences does not appear to trouble nature’s units.
Within the larger units, things and events from conceptually more and more alien sciences are incorporated and regulated.”
98
Barker on Unity of Social Reality
“As far as our behaviour is concerned, … even the most radical diversity of kinds and categories need not prevent integration”
99
we must be tuned, automatically, to social reality
J. J. Gibson’s ecological psychology: we are tuned automatically to perceptual reality
100
How to solve this problem
(and why are buildings important?)
Compare the way in which the physical properties of ROADS help people to obey the
traffic laws when driving
Deal with obligations, norms not via deontic logic but via the comparison with roads?
101
First step: A Theory of Environments
Biological environments
Niches
Places
102
Environments a Neglected Major Category in the History of Ontology
Substances
States, Qualities, Powers, Roles …
Processes
Environments
-- environments missing from Aristotle, from DOLCE, from entity-relationship models
103
Ecological Niche Concepts
niche as particular place or subdivision of an environment that an organism or population occupies (TOKEN)
vs.
niche as function of an organism or population within an ecological community (TYPE)
104
Human beings live in complex environments
Recall Reinach’s notion of transcategorial relations
Merlin Donald,The Origins of the Modern Mind:
notion of external memory
105
The Ecological Psychology of J. J. Gibson and Roger Barker
106
Affordances
“The affordances of the environment are what it offers the animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or evil.”
James J. Gibson, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception
107
Organisms are tuning forks
They have evolved to resonate automatically and directly to those quality regions in their niche which are relevant for survival
-- perception is a form of automatic resonation-- cognitive beings resonate to speech acts and
to linguistic records-- cognitive beings resonate deontically
108
affordances: positive and negative features of the
environment:
permissions and prohibitions
109
Roger Barker: Niche as Behavioral SettingNiches are recurrent settings which serve as the environments for our everyday activities:
my swimming pool,
your table in the cafeteria,
the 5pm train to Long Island.
110
Behavior Settings
Each behavior setting is associated with certain standing patterns of behavior.
111
Settings, for Barker,
are natural units in no way imposed by an investigator.
To laymen they are as objective as rivers and forests
— they are parts of the objective environment that are experienced as directly as rain and sandy beaches are experienced. (Barker 1968, p. 11)
112
SettingsEach setting has a boundary which separates an organized internal (foreground) pattern from a differing external (background) pattern.
ORGANIZATIONS ARE BUILDINGSORGANIZATIONS ARE NESTED SYSTEMS OF SETTINGS SETTINGS ARE LIKE THE INTERIORS OF BUILDINGS
113
The Ontology of Niches
Niches are in some ways like the interiors of substances
Two concepts of spaceship:John is in the spaceshipThe embryo is in the uterusThe yoghurt is in the refrigerator
Niches and quasi-nichesSubstances and quasi-substances
114
Two concepts of spaceship
John is in LondonJohn saw London from the air London London
IBM IBM
John admired her carJohn was sitting in her car
A is part of B vs. A is in the interior of B as a tenant is in its niche
115
The Ontology of Niches
Niches as endurants
Niches as four-dimensional spatiotemporally extended volumes
116
Marks of (bodily) substance
i. Rounded-offness
ii. Occupies space
iii. Complete boundary
iv. May have substantial parts (nesting)
v. May be included in larger substances
vi. Has a life (manifests contrary accidents at different times)
117
Corresponding Marks of Niches
(i) A niche enjoys a certain natural completeness or rounded-offness,
being neither too small nor too large
—in contrast to the arbitrary undetached parts of environmental settings and to arbitrary heaps or aggregates of environmental settings.
118
(ii) A niche takes up space,
it occupies a physical-temporal locale,
and is such as to have spatial parts.
Within this physical-temporal locale is a privileged locus—a hole—
into which the tenant or occupant of the setting fits exactly.
119
(iii) A niche
has an outer boundary:
there are objects which fall clearly within it,
and other objects which fall clearly outside it.
(The boundary itself need not be crisp.)
120
(iv) A niche
may have actual parts which are also environmental settings(hierarchical nesting)
121
(v) A niche
may be a proper part of larger, circumcluding niche.
122
(vi) A niche has a life
is now warm, now cold
now at peace, now at war ….
now expanding, now contracting
123
Marks of (bodily) substance
i. Rounded-offness
ii. Occupies space
iii. Complete boundary
iv. May have substantial parts (nesting)
v. May be included in larger substances
vi. Has a life; is now warm, now cold
124
Niche Construction
Lewontin: niches normally arise in symbiosis with the activities of organisms or groups of organisms;
they are not already there, like vacant rooms in a gigantic evolutionary hotel, awaiting organisms who would evolve into them.
“ecosystem engineering”
125
Applications of the niche concept
in biology, ecology
in medicine (embryology …)
in anthropology
in economics
in the ontology of artifacts
in law
in politics
126
Where are Niches?Concrete Entity
[Exists in Space and Time]Concrete Entity
[Exists in Space and Time]
Entity in 3-D Ontology[Endure. No Temporal Parts]
Entity in 3-D Ontology[Endure. No Temporal Parts]
Entity in 4-D Ontology[Perdure. Unfold in Time]Entity in 4-D Ontology
[Perdure. Unfold in Time]
Processual EntityProcessual EntitySpatio-Temporal Region
Dim = T, T+0, T+1, T+2, T+3Spatio-Temporal Region
Dim = T, T+0, T+1, T+2, T+3
Spatial Regionof Dimension 0,1,2,3
Spatial Regionof Dimension 0,1,2,3 Dependent EntityDependent Entity
Independent EntityIndependent Entity
Quality (Your Redness, My Tallness)[Form Quality Regions/Scales]
Quality (Your Redness, My Tallness)[Form Quality Regions/Scales]
Role, Function, PowerHave realizations (called: Processes)
Role, Function, PowerHave realizations (called: Processes)
Substance[maximally connected causal unity]
Substance[maximally connected causal unity]
Boundary of Substance *Fiat or Bona Fide or MixedBoundary of Substance *
Fiat or Bona Fide or Mixed
Aggregate of Substances * (includes masses of stuff? liquids?)
Aggregate of Substances * (includes masses of stuff? liquids?)
Fiat Part of Substance * Nose, Ear, Mountain
Fiat Part of Substance * Nose, Ear, Mountain
Process [Has Unity]Clinical trial; exercise of role
Process [Has Unity]Clinical trial; exercise of role
Fiat Part of Process*Fiat Part of Process*
Aggregate of Processes*Aggregate of Processes*
Instantaneous Temporal Boundary of Process (= Ingarden’s 'Event’)*
Instantaneous Temporal Boundary of Process (= Ingarden’s 'Event’)*
Quasi-ProcessJohn’s Youth. John’s Life
Quasi-ProcessJohn’s Youth. John’s Life
Quasi-Quality Prices, Values, Obligations
Quasi-Quality Prices, Values, Obligations
Quasi-SubstanceChurch, College, Corporation
Quasi-SubstanceChurch, College, Corporation
Quasi-Role/Function/PowerThe Functions of the PresidentQuasi-Role/Function/Power
The Functions of the President
127
Where are Places?Concrete Entity
[Exists in Space and Time]Concrete Entity
[Exists in Space and Time]
Entity in 3-D Ontology[Endure. No Temporal Parts]
Entity in 3-D Ontology[Endure. No Temporal Parts]
Entity in 4-D Ontology[Perdure. Unfold in Time]Entity in 4-D Ontology
[Perdure. Unfold in Time]
Processual EntityProcessual EntitySpatio-Temporal Region
Dim = T, T+0, T+1, T+2, T+3Spatio-Temporal Region
Dim = T, T+0, T+1, T+2, T+3
Spatial Regionof Dimension
0,1,2,3
Spatial Regionof Dimension
0,1,2,3
Dependent EntityDependent Entity
Independent EntityIndependent Entity
128
Gibson’s theory of surface layout
Niches = systems of barriers, openings, pathways to which organisms are specifically attuned,
Include: temperature gradients, patterns of movement of air or water molecules, electro-chemical signals guiding the movements of micro-organisms
But also: traffic signs, instructions posted on notice boards or displayed on the computer screen
129
Nesting
Many settings occur in assemblies:
A unit in the middle range of a nesting structure is simultaneously both circumjacent and interjacent,
both whole and part,
both entity and environment.
130
Unity of Behaviour and Ecological Setting
A physical-behavioural unit is a unit: its parts are unified together, but not through any similarity or community of substance.
131
The Systematic Mutual Fittingness of Behaviour and
Ecological SettingThe behaviour and the physical objects … are intertwined in such a way as to form a pattern that is by no means random: there is a relation of harmonious fit between the standard patterns of behaviour occurring within the unit and the pattern of its physical components.
Compare the way in which the processes in the body are constrained by the hierarchical organization of body, organs, cells …
132
The Systematic Mutual Fittingness of Behaviour and
Ecological Setting(The seats in the lecture hall face the speaker. The speaker addresses his remarks out towards the audience. The boundary of the football field is, leaving aside certain predetermined exceptions, the boundary of the game. The beginning and end of the school music period mark the limits of the pattern of music behaviour.)
133
Non-transposability
This mutual fittingness of behaviour and physical environment extends to the fine, interior structure of behaviour in a way which will imply a radical nontransposability of standing patterns of behaviour from one environment to another.
The physical or historical or ceremonial conditions obtaining in particular settings are in addition as essential for some kinds of behaviour as are persons with the requisite authority, motives and skills.
134
Power and Authority
There are various forces which help to bring about and to sustain this mutual fittingness and thus to constitute the unity of the physical-behavioural unit through time. Forces which flow in the direction from setting to behaviour include physical constraints exercised by hedges, walls or corridors or by persons with sticks; they include social forces manifested in the authority of the teacher, in threats, promises, warnings;
135
The Unifying Effects of the Physical Environment
they include the physiological effects of climate, the need for food and water; and they include the effects of perceived physiognomic features of the environment
(open spaces seduce children, a businesslike atmosphere encourages businesslike behaviour).
136
Mutual Fittingness
can be reinforced by learning, and also by a process of selection of the persons involved, whether this be one of self-selection (of children who remain in Sunday school class in light of their ability to conform to the corresponding standing patterns of behaviour), or of externally imposed mental or physical entrance tests.
137
Behaviour shapes Setting
Influences which flow from behaviour to setting, include all those ways in which a succession of separate and uncoordinated actions can have unintended consequences in the form of new types of actions and new, modified types of settings in the future (as the passage of many feet causes pathways to form in the hillside).
138
Settings shape Persons
Each person has many strengths, many intelligences, many social maturities, many speeds, many degrees of liberality and conservativeness, and many moralities, depending in large part on the particular contexts of the persons behavior. For example, the same person who displays marked obtusiveness when confronted with a mechanical problem may show impressive skill and adroitness in dealing with social situations.
139
Aurel Kolnai
a human society
… comprehends the same individual over and over again in line with his various social affiliations …
140
Daily life
= passage through a succession of physical-behavioural units which are as much a part of the furniture of reality as are garden-variety continuants and occurrents (such as you and me). Physical-behavioural units have parts.And they have consequences:contracts signed, orders issued, judgments passed, medals awarded.
141
The bonds
established by Reinach’s protostructures of promise, claim and obligation …can normally arise only within miniature civil societies,within which special sorts of environmental conditions are satisfiedAustin: a promise is a sort of ritualHolds of commands in large-scale organizations too.
142
Theory of roles/functions/powers
of greater and lesser generality
How are roles/functions/powers within a hierarchical organization themselves nested together hierarchically?
Orders not issued in a vacuum:
systems of external memory:
records and representations
procedures for authentication
143
A niche may have actual parts which are also environmental settings(hierarchical nesting)
Theory of the organization of organizations:
the roles you take on as inhabitant of the niche called IBMthe roles you take on as inhabitant of the niche called US-Division 4B/661 of IBM (YOU ARE
THE BOSS)the roles you take on as inhabitant of the niche called your local office (YOU ISSUE
COMMANDS)
144
SPAN: Entities extended in time
SPANEntity extended in time
Portion of Spacetime
Fiat part of process *First phase of a clinical trial
Spacetime worm of 3 + Tdimensions
occupied by life of organism
Temporal interval *projection of organism’s life
onto temporal dimension
Aggregate of processes *Clinical trial
Process[±Relational]
Circulation of blood,secretion of hormones,course of disease, life
Processual Entity[Exists in space and time, unfolds
in time phase by phase]
Temporal boundary ofprocess *
onset of disease, death
spatio-temporal volumes
145
4-dimensional environments
Lobsters have evolved into environments marked by cyclical patterns of temperature change
Tudor EnglandThe Afghan winterThe window of opportunity for an invasion of Iraq
146
1
SPANEntity extended in time
Portion of Spacetime
Fiat part of process *First phase of a clinical trial
Spacetime worm of 3 + Tdimensions
occupied by life of organism
Temporal interval *projection of organism’s life
onto temporal dimension
Aggregate of processes *Clinical trial
Process[±Relational]
Circulation of blood,secretion of hormones,course of disease, life
Processual Entity[Exists in space and time, unfolds
in time phase by phase]
Temporal boundary ofprocess *
onset of disease, death
spatio-temporal volumes
standardizedpatterns of
behavior
147but also at the reality beyond
148
Logical Investigations¸1900/01
Aristotelian theory of universals and particulars
theory of part and whole
theory of ontological dependence
the theory of boundaries and fusion
149
Husserl outlines a new methodof constituent ontology
to study a domain ontologically
is to establish the parts of the domain
and the interrelations between them
especially the dependence relations
150
Ontological Dependence
a wife is dependent on a husband
a king is dependent on his subjects
a color is dependent on an extension
a charge is dependent on a conductor
a speech act is dependent on a speaker
151
Husserl’s theory of part, whole and dependence
applied by him to the ontological structure of language
invention of categorial grammar,
later formalized by Ajdukiewicz, Lambek …
152
Husserl’s theory of part, whole and dependence
applied by his student Adolf Reinach to the ontological structure of law
invention of speech act theory in Reinach’s A Priori Foundations of the Civil Law in 1913
153
154
Speech Acts
Examples: requesting, questioning, answering, ordering, imparting information, promising, commanding, baptising
‘acts of the mind’ which do not have in words and the like their accidental additional expression
Social acts = acts which “are performed in the very act of speaking”
155
Reinach’s theory of social acts
part of a complete ‘a priori ontology of social interaction’
a theory of actions, agents, ogligations,
156
Communication between agents
Luc’s MSc thesis and Reinach…
Agents are in the world, they have to achieve their goals in relation to a particular environment, and adapt to this environment
Agents are with other agents: they have to cooperate with each other = not merely to communicate but also form agreement (form miniature civil societies)
157
Communication
can be with human beings or agents inside computers
therefore the ontology of communication cannot itself be inside the computer
it has to be much, much bigger
158
Reinach:
Commanding
does not involve an experience which is expressed but which could have remained unexpressed,
…there is nothing about commanding which could rightly be taken as the pure announcing of an internal experience.
159
Reinach:
Commanding is rather an experience all its own, a doing of the subject to which in addition to its spontaneity, its intentionality and its other-directedness, the need to be grasped is also essential.
160
Some events depend on underlying states
An assertion depends upon an underying state of conviction/belief
A command depends upon an underlying relational state of authority
161
Some events give rise to states
Perception gives rise to conviction/belief as its successor state: John sees that Mary is swimming
Promising gives rise to claim and obligation as its successor states
162
The Structure of the Promise
promiser
promiseethe promise
relations of one-sideddependence
163
The Structure of the Promise
promiser
promisee
act of speaking
act of registering
content
three-sided mutualdependence
164
The Structure of the Promise
oblig-ation
claim
promiser
promisee
act of speaking
act of registering
content
two-sided mutual dependence
165
The Structure of the Promise
promiser
promisee
act of speaking
act of registering
content F
oblig-ation
claim
action: do F
tendency towards realization
166
promiser
promisee
act of speaking
act of registering
content F
oblig-ation
claim
action: do F
The Background (Environment)
sincere intention
167
Modifications of Social Acts
Sham promisesLies as sham assertions (cf. a forged
signature); rhetorical questionsSocial acts performed in someone else’s
name (representation, delegation)Social acts with multiple addressesConditional social acts
168
Collective social acts
Singing in a choir
Conversation
Dancing
Arguing
Religious rituals
169
promiser
promisee
act of speaking
act of registering
content F
oblig-ation
claim
action: do F
The Background (Environment)
sincere intention
How modific-ations occur
170
promiser
promisee
act of speaking
act of registering
content F
oblig-ation
claim
action: do F
The Background (Environment)
sincere intention
How modific-ations occur
171
promiser
promisee
act of speaking
act of registering
content F
oblig-ation
claim
action: do F
The Background (Environment)
sincere intention
How modific-ations occur
172
promiser
promisee
act of speaking
act of registering
content F
oblig-ation
claim
action: do F
The Background (Environment)
sincere intention
How modific-ations occur
173
Contrast E-commerce application ontologies
billdeliverest-custidentify-product-priceorderoffer-productpurchasepay
174
Humans, Machines, and the Structure of Knowledge
Harry M. CollinsSEHR, 4: 2 (1995)
175
Knowledge-down-a-wireImagine a 5-stone weakling having his brain loaded with the knowledge of a champion tennis player.
He goes to serve in his first match
-- Wham! –
his arm falls off.
He just doesn't have the bone structure or muscular development to serve that hard.
176
Types of knowledge/ability/skill
1. those that can be transferred simply by passing signals from one brain/computer to another.
2. those that can’t:
177
Sometimes it is the body (the hardware) which knows
178
and sometimes it is the world outside which knows
179
Types of knowledge/ability/skill
1. those that can be transferred simply by passing signals from one brain/computer to another.
2. those that can’t: -- here the "hardware" is important;abilities/skills contained (a) in the body(b) in the world
180
From
The Methodological Solipsist Approach to Information Processing
ToThe Ecological Approach to Information
Processing
181
Fodorian Psychology
To understand human cognition we should study the mind/brain in abstraction from its real-world environment
(as if it were a hermetically sealed Cartesian ego)