Ontological View Research Articles

Ontology in information studies: without, within, and withal knowledge management

Purpose– Ontology in information studies consists of antinomic conceptions, methodologies, and emphases in both application and philosophizing. A comprehensive understanding of ontology in information studies can be achieved by employing Slavoj Žižek's parallax view which holds that reality is not only best understood by articulating conflicting perspectives on a particular phenomenon, but that given phenomena are fundamentally constrained by incommensurable perspectives that must be acknowledged accordingly. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach– Ontology in information studies, including computational ontology development, is analyzed using critical information theory based on Heideggerian, poststructuralist, and anti-postmodern philosophy. The discussion is framed by Žižek's notion of the parallax Real.Findings– A complete understanding of ontology in information studies that does not reduce ontology to a totalizing theory or sequester notions of ontology to conflicting, unrelated discourses, necessarily accepts articulating the alterity between differing ontological views as the means by which one can best allude to what “ontology in information studies really is.”Originality/value– This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of radically different ontological perspectives on the nature of reality with respect to digital technology.

Ontology design with a granular approach

Ontology design for complex applications is quite a challenge. The quality of an ontology is highly dependent upon the capabilities of designers, and the collaborative design process is hampered by the difficulty of balancing the viewpoints of different designers. In this paper, we present a granular view of ontology: ontologies are granular, ontologies are granular approximations of conceptualizations and conceptual-relation granules of an ontology are ordered tuples. We then propose a corresponding granular ontology design approach. In our granular ontology design approach, the unified granular cognition level and hierarchies of sub-concepts are initialized before ontological terms are designed in detail, which reduces the subjective effects of the capabilities of designers. Our approach also introduces the idea of optimization to choose an optimal subset, which can best approximate the real concept domain, from the knowledge rule set presented by different domain experts. The optimal subset is chosen on the basis of the principle of granular ontology knowledge structure.

The ordeal of solitude

I try to understand the ordeal of solitude by beginning with Marc Augé’s usage on transitional sites as a provocation, which leads us to rethink solitude as a condition of subjectivity and its various inflections, most conventionally as loneliness and, in sociology, as fragmentation, anonymity, alienation, privatization and the various opinions that link it to the deprivation of separation that longs for connection, or, more fundamentally in Simmel, as the ontological view of the tragedy of human limitation. Instead of restricting us to sites, Augé’s provocation suggests that if solitude is one of a family of such usages related to the experience of being alone or apart in such a space, we might then examine ways in which it is oriented to as a condition that can vary according to extremes, say, in the way Arendt and others have contrasted the pain of loneliness with the creativity of solitude. In linking solitude to transitional sites, Augé suggests that there is something about the experience of the in-between, whether of time or space, that illuminates solitude and that makes any relationship to it a potential ordeal. I test the notion by asking how the ordeal pertains to language itself and the intermediacy of a human subject in linguistic space.

The difficulty of removing the prejudice

Critically discussing the causal social ontologies presented by Dave Elder-Vass and John Searle, the article argues that these views implausibly identify the causal ontological source of human sociality in collectively known, recognized and accepted statuses, criteria, norms and the like. This is implausible, for it ignores human sociality as occurring in temporally and spatially dispersed on-going processes of human interaction of differently placed, often unequal, and thus epistemically differently equipped actors in division of labour. Human scientific concepts are best seen as picking out (aspects of) such complex and heterogeneous processes, not what the participating actors allegedly collectively know, accept or recognize about them. The article observes that similar appeals to collective recognition are also common in Wittgensteinian literature that, however, have claimed to reject the causal ontological view. It is argued that the ultimate value in rejecting the causal ontological view, and the accompanying idea of collective recognition, resides in that we thereby avoid epistemically homogenizing and over-intellectualizing the diverse mass of dispersed, often unequal, but interacting actors.

Some Early‐Modern Discussions of Vagueness: Locke, Leibniz, Kant

AbstractThere has recently been a growing interest in the topic of vagueness and indeterminacy in contemporary metaphysics, with two views taking center stage. The semantic view holds that indeterminacy is due to vagueness in the extension of concepts, while the ontological view holds that indeterminacy is due to the vagueness of certain objects. There has, however, been little research on discussions of vagueness and indeterminacy in early‐modern philosophy despite the relevance of vagueness and indeterminacy for issues such as real and nominal definitions, clear and distinct ideas, and the principle of complete determination. In this paper, I survey discussions of vagueness in Locke, Leibniz, and Kant and point to ways in which the problem of vagueness and indeterminacy touches on broader issues in their respective philosophies. Although Locke, Leibniz, and Kant all suggest that vagueness is a semantic phenomenon, Kant also appears to countenance an ontological view according to which objects as appearances may sometimes be indeterminate.

Psyche as Postmodern Condition

This article examines James Hillman’s notion of psyche in relation to metaphor as the foundation for his archetypal psychology. In pushing Jung to his imaginal limits, Hillman provides an archetypal corrective to the Cartesianism inherent in modern scientific psychology in order to understand all aspects of contemporary psychological life. He proposes an ontological view of metaphor that locates psyche beyond language and mind to places in the world, thus seeking to establish a postmodern archetypal psychology. In the end his notion of psyche is not radical enough in its critique to advance archetypal psychology into acknowledging its postmodern condition.

Selection Method for COTS Systems

Historically, organizations developed their information systems in-house. Today, a large portion of information systems development is based on the acquisition of pre-made information systems, so-called commercially off-the-shelf (COTS) systems. This approach for developing information systems requires new skills and methods supporting the process of evaluating and selecting information systems. This paper presents a method for selecting COTS systems. The method includes the following phases: problem framing, requirements and appraisal, and selection of systems. The idea and distinguishing feature behind the method is that improved understanding of organizational ‘ends’ or goals should govern the selection of a COTS system. This can also be expressed as a match or fit between ‘ends’ (e.g. improved organizational effectiveness) and ‘means’ (e.g. implementing COTS systems). This way of approaching the selection of COTS systems as viewing them as a ‘means’ to reach organizational ‘ends’ is different from the mainstream views of information systems development, namely the view that sees information systems development as a problem-solving process, and the underlying ontological view in other COTS selection methods, which focus on selection of functionality not reaching organizational ends.

Constructing formal semantics from an ontological perspective. The case of second-order logics

In a first part, I defend that formal semantics can be used as a guide to ontological commitment. Thus, if one endorses an ontological view \(O\) and wants to interpret a formal language \(L\), a thorough understanding of the relation between semantics and ontology will help us to construct a semantics for \(L\) in such a way that its ontological commitment will be in perfect accordance with \(O\). Basically, that is what I call constructing formal semantics from an ontological perspective. In the rest of the paper, I develop rigorously and put into practice such a method, especially concerning the interpretation of second-order quantification. I will define the notion of ontological framework: it is a set-theoretical structure from which one can construct semantics whose ontological commitments correspond exactly to a given ontological view. I will define five ontological frameworks corresponding respectively to: (i) predicate nominalism, (ii) resemblance nominalism, (iii) armstrongian realism, (iv) platonic realism, and (v) tropism. From those different frameworks, I will construct different semantics for first-order and second-order languages. Notably I will present different kinds of nominalist semantics for second-order languages, showing thus that we can perfectly quantify over properties and relations while being ontologically committed only to individuals. I will show in what extent those semantics differ from each other; it will make clear how the disagreements between the ontological views extend from ontology to logic, and thus why endorsing an ontological view should have an impact on the kind of logic one should use.

Опыт построения структурно-функциональной модели массовой коммуникации

The paper offers an ontological model of mass communication (MC), which 
 unites traditional structural-functional information approach and metaphorical simulation method. The selection of archetypical psychological structures, which can be laid in the basis of a representative communicative 
 model, is proved in this study. The model establishes the equality of communicator and recipient values in the communication process and the resulting structural symmetry of communication mental and activity cycles, 
 in particular, balances the communicative effect by the binding force of the 
 communicative order, that allows specify a meaning of "free press" term. 
 The model identifies six key positions for evaluation of MC system’s objective condition in society. Analysis of these positions is carried out in accordance with information flow distribution in the MC not on technological 
 characteristics (press, radio, TV, etc.), as it is done usually, but in accordance with K. Jung’s four psychological modes, that methodologically predetermined by ontological view on communication.

Positioning identities

The purpose of this article is to broaden and sharpen the use of positioning in social science inquiry. Historically, positioning has either been aligned with ethogenic and ontological constructionist views of discourse/identity or post-structural projects interested in positioning as means to uncovering how people’s minds work or how an ordered extant exterior world shapes and constitutes human action. Rather than looking through acts of positioning to minds or worlds, the present chapter offers an epistemic discursive psychological view of positioning as sets of local discursive processes whereby speakers elegantly exploit the features of ordinary talk so as to make relevant their own and/or other’s identities as part of some social business that has an interactional logic as well as here-and-now relational consequences. The discursive dexterity of positioning is illustrated through an analysis of the negotiation of gendered identity categories.

George Soros: Hayekian?

This paper examines many similarities in the methodological and ontological views of George Soros and Friedrich Hayek.

¿PUEDE EL HOMBRE SER UN INSTRUMENTO?

En sus relecciones, Vitoria cuestiona la instrumentalización y los títulos de dominio que algunos españoles decían poseer sobre las Indias, por lo que hace una justificación ontológica apoyada en una investigación antropológica sobre las relaciones entre los hombres y entre los pueblos, para así superar la presunta esclavitud natural y trato instrumental sobre los nativos que obscurece la dignidad y libertad trascendental humanas, por un lado, así como sentar los argumentos morales que posteriormente resolverían el problema de la esclavitud legal, por el otro.

Development of University Ontology for aSPOCMS

In these days, ontology is the most popular and widespread formalism of knowledge representation. With the requirement of our system aSPOCMS (An Agent-based Semantic Web for Paperless Office Content Management System), we present the construction of university ontology to retrieve the information and accomplish the proc ess of files of various sections by using the predefined w orkflow in university ontology. The aSPOCMS aims to provide the facility to manage and process the files/documents of various departments and sections of higher educational inst itutions (i.e. universities) in paperless environment. This paper reveals the conceptualization of university knowledge through construction of university ontology. Generalized structure of Indian universities and workflow processes have been taken for ontology development by describing the class hierarchy, and demonstrate the graphical view of ontology. We also demonstrate the ability of univer sity ontology to execute intelligent query to retrieve t he information.

No reason for identity: on the relation between motivating and normative reasons

This essay is concerned with the relation between motivating and normative reasons. According to a common and influential thesis, a normative reason is identical with a motivating reason when an agent acts for that normative reason. I will call this thesis the ‘Identity Thesis’. Many philosophers treat the Identity Thesis as a commonplace or a truism. Accordingly, the Identity Thesis has been used to rule out certain ontological views about reasons. I distinguish a deliberative and an explanatory version of the Identity Thesis and argue that there are no convincing arguments to accept either version. Furthermore, I point out an alternative to the Identity Thesis. The relation between motivating and normative reasons can be thought of as one of representation, not identity.

가상현실 속의 상황 표현을 위한 시공간 그래프의 구현

In this paper, we develop a Spatio-Temporal graph as of a key component of our knowledge representation Scheme. We design an integrated representation scheme to depict not only present and past but future in parallel with the spaces in an effective and intuitive manner. An event in general occupies not only a space but a time. Hence a crucial premise for the simulation of virtual situations is to position events in the multi-dimensional context, that is, 3-D space extended by the temporal dimension. Furthermore an event tends to have physical, social and mental aspects intertwined. As a result we need diverse information structures and functions to model entities and relations associated with events and to describe situations in different stances or perspectives of the virtual agents. These structures and functions are implemented in terms of integrated and intuitive representation schemes at different levels such as Ontology View, Instance View, ST View, Reality View. The resulting multi-dimensional comprehensive knowledge structure accommodates multi-layered virtual world developing in the time to maximize the diversity of situations in the historical context. The viability of this knowledge representation scheme is demonstrated with a typical scenario applied to a simulator implemented based on the ST Graph. The virtual stage based on the ST graph can be used to provide natural contexts for situated learning or next-generation simulation games.

Biological Theory and the Metaphysics of Race: A Reply to Kaplan and Winther

In Kaplan and Winther’s recent article (Biol Theory. doi:10.1007/s13752-012-0048-0, 2012) they argue for three bold theses: first, that “it is illegitimate to read any ontology about ‘race’ off of biological theory or data”; second, that “using biological theory to ground race is a pernicious reification”; and, third, that “race is fundamentally a social rather than a biological category.” While Kaplan and Winther’s theses are thoughtful, I show that the arguments that their theses rest on are unconvincing. In order to be constructive, I go on to show exactly how one can use biological theory and data to legitimately infer an ontological view of race, to infer a biological view of race that is not a reification, and to argue that race is both socially constructed and biologically real.

Austin, Hart, and Shapiro: Three Variations on Law as an Entity Grounded in a Social Practice

Social ontology is a branch of analytical philosophy that studies the nature of entities belonging to social reality. This paper examines, from the point of view of social ontology, three positivistic interpretations of the thesis that law is an entity grounded in a social practice. The three interpretations under examination are to be found in the theories by Austin, Hart and Shapiro. This task accomplishes two purposes. On the one hand, it illuminates new aspects of the theories by Austin and Hart by means of establishing to what extent they succeed in accounting for the intuition that law is something that we do together acting in groups. On the other hand, it will shed light on some Catedratico da Universidad de Externado (Colombia). Doutor em Filosofia pela University of Florida (Estados Unidos da America). Doutor em Direito pela Universidad de Salamanca (Espanha). Mestre em Filosofia pela University of Florida (Estados Unidos da America). Bacharel em Direito pela Universidad de Externado (Colombia). CARLOS BERNAL PULIDO 45 Revista Brasileira de Estudos Politicos | Belo Horizonte | n. 107 | pp. 43-98 | jul./dez. 2013 basic elements of Shapiro’s Planning Theory of Law that make it possible to understand law as a socioontological entity and that have been overlooked by the reviewers of Shapiro’s book, Legality.

The City and its Ontology in Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria Quartet

Durrell situates his version of Alexandria on a cosmogonic site as limned by Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu. For more than twenty years, Durrell had been studying these Taoist philosophers whose ontological views opened new doors for him so that he could write about the self in the way he wished.

POEZJA OKSYMORONU. O METAFORYCE W WIERSZACH KRASIŃSKIEGO / THE POETRY OF THE OXYMORON: ZYGMUNT KRASIŃSKI’S VERSE

Summary This re-reading of Zygmunt Krasiński’s lyrical verse rejects (at least to some extent) the generally held view of his poetry as some kind of literary fossils. To demonstrate its genuine complexity the author of this article focuses on Krasiński’s use of the oxymoron, an aspect of his poetic art that has been neglected by the critics. The oxymoron, which seems to be his favourite metaphoric device, is analysed here on the level of poetic ontology, poetic semantics, and metaphoric imagery. In each of those spheres oxymorons play a dominant role: Krasiński uses them to construct his poetic world, to complicate and problematize his meanings, and to create a highly dramatic imagery. Finally, it is argued that the shift in Krasiński’s use of the oxymoron from a sign of cleavage to that of a balanced whole corresponds to a similar evolution in his ontological views.

Towards a Functional Approach to Modular Ontologies Using Institutions

We propose a functional view of ontologies that emphasises their role in determining answers to queries, irrespective of the formalism in which they are written. A notion of framework is introduced that captures the situation of a global language into which both an ontology language and a query language can be translated, in an abstract way. We then generalise existing notions of robustness from the literature, and relate these to interpolation properties that support modularisation of ontologies.