Interaction Dictionary

Ontology has the task to construct the most general theories concerning concrete entities, called things, their being and becoming [1]. The reality described does not include the concepts that words may designate, because concepts can not (directly) interact with material systems, they are not constituents of the physical world.

For the purpose of terminological convenience, the material world is called the Material Stratum (MS).
Bunge’s emphasis on concrete-world things that possess properties is suitable for concrete organisations, livelihoods and society in which people work and live on a day-to-day basis. Things constitute the ontological anchor of any knowledge.

The knowledge, on the other hand, is expressed by means of sign systems, i.e. conceptual models and data. It is convenient and effective to assume that these additional objects exist in a distinct (ontological) stratum: the Data Stratum (DS) (or sign stratum) and the Concepts Stratum (CS). Knowledge spaces that are constructed in DS and CS are highly adaptable, expandable and even dispensable for the MS. Their purpose lies in reporting and planning, though.

Ontological stratification is the partitioning of (conceptualization of) a system’s environment into several disjoint spaces (or strata) according to the identity criteria used to conceptualize the entities in these spaces, and according to the possible behaviours of these entities. The strata proposed are: material, data, concept, subject (intentional entity) and legal. Their joint use has been demonstrated in a study on openness in agent systems [2].

The methodology proposed here generalizes earlier results [3] by consolidating the stratum architecture as a basis for cross-epistemic-field-term mapping in support of entities with differing ontogenic life-paths, and by leveraging it for development projects.

The Industrial Semiosis paper [4] distinguishes the ontogenic, typogenic and phylogenic life-paths of entities. The first one is embedded in the Material Stratum, the latter two exist in the Data and Concept Stratum.

For additional details, and cues about how this approach links to bandwagon ontology research in the computing science area, check knowledge as well as the papers referenced there.

References
[1] Bunge, M. (1977). Ontology I: The Furniture of the World, Treatise on Basic Philosophy Vol. 3, Reidel, Boston.
[2] Abramov et al, 2003)
[3] Goossenaerts and Pelletier (2002)
[4] Goossenaerts (2000)

Description