Robert Arp, Barry Smith, and Andrew D. Spear
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262527811
- eISBN:
- 9780262329583
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262527811.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
We discuss the interplay between applied ontology and the use of web resources in scientific and other domains, and provide an account of how ontologies are implemented computationally. We provide an ...
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We discuss the interplay between applied ontology and the use of web resources in scientific and other domains, and provide an account of how ontologies are implemented computationally. We provide an introduction to the Protégé Ontology Editor, the Semantic Web, the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL). We illustrated how BFO is used to provide the common architecture for specific domain ontologies, including the Ontology for General Medical Science (OGMS), the Infectious Disease Ontology (IDO), the Information Artifact Ontology (IAO), and the Emotion Ontology (MFO-EM). Before terms and relations provide the starting point for the creation of definition trees in such ontologies according to the Aristotelian strategy for authoring of definitions outlined in Chapter 4. We conclude with a discussion of the role of a top-level ontology such as BFO in facilitating semantic interoperability.Less
We discuss the interplay between applied ontology and the use of web resources in scientific and other domains, and provide an account of how ontologies are implemented computationally. We provide an introduction to the Protégé Ontology Editor, the Semantic Web, the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL). We illustrated how BFO is used to provide the common architecture for specific domain ontologies, including the Ontology for General Medical Science (OGMS), the Infectious Disease Ontology (IDO), the Information Artifact Ontology (IAO), and the Emotion Ontology (MFO-EM). Before terms and relations provide the starting point for the creation of definition trees in such ontologies according to the Aristotelian strategy for authoring of definitions outlined in Chapter 4. We conclude with a discussion of the role of a top-level ontology such as BFO in facilitating semantic interoperability.
Michail Peramatzis
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199588350
- eISBN:
- 9780191728877
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588350.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
Recent work in metaphysics has witnessed a noticeable turn to Aristotelian discussions of priority in one form or another. This revival of interests in Aristotle-inspired themes focuses on questions ...
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Recent work in metaphysics has witnessed a noticeable turn to Aristotelian discussions of priority in one form or another. This revival of interests in Aristotle-inspired themes focuses on questions of what priority consists in and how it relates existents, rendering some basic and others derivative. For Aristotle, in contradistinction with (e.g.) Quinean metaphysical views, questions of existence are not considered central. Rather, the crucial questions are what types of existent are fundamental and what their grounding relation to derivative existents consists in. It becomes extremely important, therefore, to return to Aristotle's own theses regarding priority and to study them not only with exegetical caution but also with acutely critical philosophical eye. Aristotle deploys the notion of priority in numerous levels of his thought. In his ontology he operates with the notion of primary substance. His Categories, for instance, confer this honorific title upon particular objects such as Socrates or Bucephalus, while in the Metaphysics it is essences or substantial forms, such as being human, which are privileged with priority over certain types of matter or hylomorphic compounds (either particular compound objects such as Socrates or universal compound types such as the species human). The chief aim of the book is to understand priority claims of this sort in Aristotle's metaphysical system by setting out the different concepts of priority and seeing whether and, if so, how Aristotle's preferred prior and posterior items fit with these concepts.Less
Recent work in metaphysics has witnessed a noticeable turn to Aristotelian discussions of priority in one form or another. This revival of interests in Aristotle-inspired themes focuses on questions of what priority consists in and how it relates existents, rendering some basic and others derivative. For Aristotle, in contradistinction with (e.g.) Quinean metaphysical views, questions of existence are not considered central. Rather, the crucial questions are what types of existent are fundamental and what their grounding relation to derivative existents consists in. It becomes extremely important, therefore, to return to Aristotle's own theses regarding priority and to study them not only with exegetical caution but also with acutely critical philosophical eye. Aristotle deploys the notion of priority in numerous levels of his thought. In his ontology he operates with the notion of primary substance. His Categories, for instance, confer this honorific title upon particular objects such as Socrates or Bucephalus, while in the Metaphysics it is essences or substantial forms, such as being human, which are privileged with priority over certain types of matter or hylomorphic compounds (either particular compound objects such as Socrates or universal compound types such as the species human). The chief aim of the book is to understand priority claims of this sort in Aristotle's metaphysical system by setting out the different concepts of priority and seeing whether and, if so, how Aristotle's preferred prior and posterior items fit with these concepts.
Robert Arp, Barry Smith, and Andrew D. Spear
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262527811
- eISBN:
- 9780262329583
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262527811.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
The potential of information-driven disciplines such as biology and clinical science can be realized only if those involved in the production and analysis of data can successfully build upon each ...
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The potential of information-driven disciplines such as biology and clinical science can be realized only if those involved in the production and analysis of data can successfully build upon each other’s work. The quantity and heterogeneity of the data being produced raises challenges to this goal, and so also does the tendency of different communities to describe their data in different, sometimes ad hoc, ways. If computers are effectively to exploit the results of scientific research and enable interoperability among diverse data repositories, then a strategy is needed to counteract such tendencies to data-silo formation. The use of common, consensus-based, controlled vocabularies to tag or describe data is one such strategy. Applied ontology is the discipline which creates, evaluates, and applies such common vocabularies – called ‘ontologies’ – a discipline which involves contributions from philosophers, logicians, and computer scientists, working with researchers in specific scientific disciplines as well as with users and creators of data in extra-scientific fields. Ontologies provide not merely common terms, but also definitions of these terms expressed in a formal language to allow processing by computers. The book describes the concrete steps involved in building and using ontologies for purposes of tagging data. It documents principles of best practice and provides examples of different sorts of errors to be avoided. It also provides an introduction to a specific top-level ontology, the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), and to the computational resources used in building and applying ontologies, including the Ontology Web Language (OWL).Less
The potential of information-driven disciplines such as biology and clinical science can be realized only if those involved in the production and analysis of data can successfully build upon each other’s work. The quantity and heterogeneity of the data being produced raises challenges to this goal, and so also does the tendency of different communities to describe their data in different, sometimes ad hoc, ways. If computers are effectively to exploit the results of scientific research and enable interoperability among diverse data repositories, then a strategy is needed to counteract such tendencies to data-silo formation. The use of common, consensus-based, controlled vocabularies to tag or describe data is one such strategy. Applied ontology is the discipline which creates, evaluates, and applies such common vocabularies – called ‘ontologies’ – a discipline which involves contributions from philosophers, logicians, and computer scientists, working with researchers in specific scientific disciplines as well as with users and creators of data in extra-scientific fields. Ontologies provide not merely common terms, but also definitions of these terms expressed in a formal language to allow processing by computers. The book describes the concrete steps involved in building and using ontologies for purposes of tagging data. It documents principles of best practice and provides examples of different sorts of errors to be avoided. It also provides an introduction to a specific top-level ontology, the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), and to the computational resources used in building and applying ontologies, including the Ontology Web Language (OWL).
Jon McGinnis
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195331479
- eISBN:
- 9780199868032
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331479.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
The chapter begins with a brief discussion of what Avicenna considers to be the proper subject matter of metaphysics, namely, existents qua existents, followed by a brief outline of his Metaphysics. ...
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The chapter begins with a brief discussion of what Avicenna considers to be the proper subject matter of metaphysics, namely, existents qua existents, followed by a brief outline of his Metaphysics. Since it would be impossible to cover all of the issues with which Avicenna wrestles in his Metaphysics, this and the next chapter consider two closely related topics: Avicenna’s theology and cosmology. To appreciate Avicenna’s contribution to these two subjects, there is a brief history of how earlier philosophers had viewed God’s relation to the cosmos, which involved a cluster of core philosophical problems that Avicenna’s metaphysical system attempts to address. This brief history is followed by a look at Avicenna’s modal ontology, an investigation of Avicenna’s celebrated analysis of the Necessary Existent, and then ends with his account of the divine attributes.Less
The chapter begins with a brief discussion of what Avicenna considers to be the proper subject matter of metaphysics, namely, existents qua existents, followed by a brief outline of his Metaphysics. Since it would be impossible to cover all of the issues with which Avicenna wrestles in his Metaphysics, this and the next chapter consider two closely related topics: Avicenna’s theology and cosmology. To appreciate Avicenna’s contribution to these two subjects, there is a brief history of how earlier philosophers had viewed God’s relation to the cosmos, which involved a cluster of core philosophical problems that Avicenna’s metaphysical system attempts to address. This brief history is followed by a look at Avicenna’s modal ontology, an investigation of Avicenna’s celebrated analysis of the Necessary Existent, and then ends with his account of the divine attributes.
Christopher Watkin
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748637591
- eISBN:
- 9780748671847
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748637591.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
Phenomenology or Deconstruction? challenges traditional understandings of the relationship between two important movements in European thought through new readings of the work of Maurice ...
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Phenomenology or Deconstruction? challenges traditional understandings of the relationship between two important movements in European thought through new readings of the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Paul Ricœur and Jean-Luc Nancy. A constant dialogue with Jacques Derrida's discussion of phenomenological themes provides the impetus to establishing a new understanding of ‘being’ and ‘presence’ that exposes significant blind spots inherent in traditional readings of both phenomenology and deconstruction, wedded as such readings often are to an ideology of antagonism or succession. In reproducing neither a stock phenomenological reaction to deconstruction nor the routine deconstructive reading of phenomenology, this book provides a fresh assessment of the possibilities for the future of phenomenology, along with a new reading of the deconstructive legacy. It shows how a phenomenological tradition much wider and richer than Husserlian or Heideggerean thought alone can take account of Derrida's critique of ontology and yet still hold a commitment to the ontological. Its new reading of being and presence fundamentally re-draws our understanding of the relation of deconstruction and phenomenology, and provides the first sustained discussion of the possibilities and problems for any future ‘deconstructive phenomenology’.Less
Phenomenology or Deconstruction? challenges traditional understandings of the relationship between two important movements in European thought through new readings of the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Paul Ricœur and Jean-Luc Nancy. A constant dialogue with Jacques Derrida's discussion of phenomenological themes provides the impetus to establishing a new understanding of ‘being’ and ‘presence’ that exposes significant blind spots inherent in traditional readings of both phenomenology and deconstruction, wedded as such readings often are to an ideology of antagonism or succession. In reproducing neither a stock phenomenological reaction to deconstruction nor the routine deconstructive reading of phenomenology, this book provides a fresh assessment of the possibilities for the future of phenomenology, along with a new reading of the deconstructive legacy. It shows how a phenomenological tradition much wider and richer than Husserlian or Heideggerean thought alone can take account of Derrida's critique of ontology and yet still hold a commitment to the ontological. Its new reading of being and presence fundamentally re-draws our understanding of the relation of deconstruction and phenomenology, and provides the first sustained discussion of the possibilities and problems for any future ‘deconstructive phenomenology’.
Kyle McGee (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748697908
- eISBN:
- 9781474416061
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748697908.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
Thirteen essays exploring Bruno Latour's legal theory from a variety of disciplinary perspectives – including a chapter by Bruno Latour responding to the arguments and critiques offered in each ...
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Thirteen essays exploring Bruno Latour's legal theory from a variety of disciplinary perspectives – including a chapter by Bruno Latour responding to the arguments and critiques offered in each chapter. This book develops an exciting new vision for legal theory combining analytical tools drawn from Latour's actor-network theory developed in works like Science in Action, Reassembling the Social and The Making of Law with the philosophical anthropology of the Moderns in An Inquiry into Modes of Existence to blaze an entirely new trail in legal epistemology. Bruno Latour's writings in science and technology studies, anthropology, sociology and philosophy are well-known, but only rarely has his work in law been appreciated as a core element, and still less as an obligatory passage point for students and scholars of law. This collection demonstrates the urgency with which both of those omissions must be reconsidered.Less
Thirteen essays exploring Bruno Latour's legal theory from a variety of disciplinary perspectives – including a chapter by Bruno Latour responding to the arguments and critiques offered in each chapter. This book develops an exciting new vision for legal theory combining analytical tools drawn from Latour's actor-network theory developed in works like Science in Action, Reassembling the Social and The Making of Law with the philosophical anthropology of the Moderns in An Inquiry into Modes of Existence to blaze an entirely new trail in legal epistemology. Bruno Latour's writings in science and technology studies, anthropology, sociology and philosophy are well-known, but only rarely has his work in law been appreciated as a core element, and still less as an obligatory passage point for students and scholars of law. This collection demonstrates the urgency with which both of those omissions must be reconsidered.
Johann Gottfried Herder and Philip V. Bohlman
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520234949
- eISBN:
- 9780520966444
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520234949.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
Had Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) written a book on music, it would have been Song Loves the Masses. One of the great polymaths of modern intellectual history, Herder wrote influential ...
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Had Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) written a book on music, it would have been Song Loves the Masses. One of the great polymaths of modern intellectual history, Herder wrote influential contributions to philosophy, theology, anthropology, aesthetics, history—and music. His writings on musical subjects are among his most comprehensive, ranging from studies of music in the origins of human speech to the song practices underlying a universal humanity. Herder’s collections of these practices, to which he referred collectively as “folk songs” sounded world music in its complex diversity and provided the modern foundations for the fields of anthropology, folklore, and ethnomusicology. Many of the folk songs themselves entered the classical music of Europe, significantly transforming its aesthetics and history. The first-ever translations of Herder’s nine most sweeping works on music unfold across the chapters of this book. From the first attempts to forge theories of folk song and publish anthologies in the 1770s through the translations of the Spanish epic, El Cid, and the biblical Song of Songs to the aesthetics of transcendence that imbued his final essays, the chapters in Song Loves the Masses together transform our modern understanding of music and history.Less
Had Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) written a book on music, it would have been Song Loves the Masses. One of the great polymaths of modern intellectual history, Herder wrote influential contributions to philosophy, theology, anthropology, aesthetics, history—and music. His writings on musical subjects are among his most comprehensive, ranging from studies of music in the origins of human speech to the song practices underlying a universal humanity. Herder’s collections of these practices, to which he referred collectively as “folk songs” sounded world music in its complex diversity and provided the modern foundations for the fields of anthropology, folklore, and ethnomusicology. Many of the folk songs themselves entered the classical music of Europe, significantly transforming its aesthetics and history. The first-ever translations of Herder’s nine most sweeping works on music unfold across the chapters of this book. From the first attempts to forge theories of folk song and publish anthologies in the 1770s through the translations of the Spanish epic, El Cid, and the biblical Song of Songs to the aesthetics of transcendence that imbued his final essays, the chapters in Song Loves the Masses together transform our modern understanding of music and history.
Sanja Dejanovic (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780748683178
- eISBN:
- 9781474408684
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748683178.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
Focussed around three core themes “capitalism, the metaphysics of democracy and aesthetics” these 11 essays emphasise the potential of Nancy's political thought, and collectively situate it within a ...
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Focussed around three core themes “capitalism, the metaphysics of democracy and aesthetics” these 11 essays emphasise the potential of Nancy's political thought, and collectively situate it within a broader intellectual context which includes engagements with Badiou, Rancière, Foucault, Agamben and Lefort.Less
Focussed around three core themes “capitalism, the metaphysics of democracy and aesthetics” these 11 essays emphasise the potential of Nancy's political thought, and collectively situate it within a broader intellectual context which includes engagements with Badiou, Rancière, Foucault, Agamben and Lefort.
Lee Braver (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029681
- eISBN:
- 9780262330008
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029681.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
How would Heidegger’s Being and Time have ended? How should it have concluded? Why didn’t he finish it? What would he have said about being in the final, concluding Division of the book that was ...
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How would Heidegger’s Being and Time have ended? How should it have concluded? Why didn’t he finish it? What would he have said about being in the final, concluding Division of the book that was never published, or perhaps even written? Some of the world’s leading Heidegger scholars offer answers to these questions, shedding new light on the central ideas of the book along the way. If we understand what the third Division would have said, we can understand the book as a whole better. If we can see why he didn’t write it, we can appreciate his later work anew.Less
How would Heidegger’s Being and Time have ended? How should it have concluded? Why didn’t he finish it? What would he have said about being in the final, concluding Division of the book that was never published, or perhaps even written? Some of the world’s leading Heidegger scholars offer answers to these questions, shedding new light on the central ideas of the book along the way. If we understand what the third Division would have said, we can understand the book as a whole better. If we can see why he didn’t write it, we can appreciate his later work anew.
Christian Gilliam
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474417884
- eISBN:
- 9781474435178
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474417884.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Christian Gilliam argues that a philosophy of ‘pure’ immanence is integral to the development of an alternative understanding of ‘the political’; one that re-orients our understanding of the self ...
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Christian Gilliam argues that a philosophy of ‘pure’ immanence is integral to the development of an alternative understanding of ‘the political’; one that re-orients our understanding of the self toward the concept of an unconscious or ‘micropolitical’ life of desire. He argues that here, in this ‘life’, is where the power relations integral to the continuation of post-industrial capitalism are most present and most at stake.
Through proving its philosophical context, lineage and political import, Gilliam ultimately justifies the conceptual necessity of immanence in understanding politics and resistance, thereby challenging the claim that ontologies of ‘pure’ immanence are either apolitical or politically incoherent.Less
Christian Gilliam argues that a philosophy of ‘pure’ immanence is integral to the development of an alternative understanding of ‘the political’; one that re-orients our understanding of the self toward the concept of an unconscious or ‘micropolitical’ life of desire. He argues that here, in this ‘life’, is where the power relations integral to the continuation of post-industrial capitalism are most present and most at stake.
Through proving its philosophical context, lineage and political import, Gilliam ultimately justifies the conceptual necessity of immanence in understanding politics and resistance, thereby challenging the claim that ontologies of ‘pure’ immanence are either apolitical or politically incoherent.
Darren Hudson Hick
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226460109
- eISBN:
- 9780226460383
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226460383.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
Artistic License aims at analyzing the right of copyright, given its essential underlying principles in the law, and its relation to contemporary artistic practice. As several legal theorists argue, ...
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Artistic License aims at analyzing the right of copyright, given its essential underlying principles in the law, and its relation to contemporary artistic practice. As several legal theorists argue, though the role of copying in artistic practice has evolved, copyright law has failed to keep step, producing an imbalance that puts the law at odds with the domain it is meant to protect. Centrally, Hick works to reconcile growing practices of artistic appropriation and related attitudes about artistic "taking" with developed views of artists’ rights, both legal and moral. Hick examines the philosophical challenges presented by the role of intellectual property in the art world and vice versa. Using real-life examples of artists who have incorporated copyrighted works into their art, he explores issues of artistic creation and the nature of infringement through aesthetic analysis and legal and critical theory. Ultimately, Artistic License provides a critical and systematic analysis of the key philosophical issues that underlie copyright policy, rethinking the relationship between artist, artwork, and the law.Less
Artistic License aims at analyzing the right of copyright, given its essential underlying principles in the law, and its relation to contemporary artistic practice. As several legal theorists argue, though the role of copying in artistic practice has evolved, copyright law has failed to keep step, producing an imbalance that puts the law at odds with the domain it is meant to protect. Centrally, Hick works to reconcile growing practices of artistic appropriation and related attitudes about artistic "taking" with developed views of artists’ rights, both legal and moral. Hick examines the philosophical challenges presented by the role of intellectual property in the art world and vice versa. Using real-life examples of artists who have incorporated copyrighted works into their art, he explores issues of artistic creation and the nature of infringement through aesthetic analysis and legal and critical theory. Ultimately, Artistic License provides a critical and systematic analysis of the key philosophical issues that underlie copyright policy, rethinking the relationship between artist, artwork, and the law.
Steve Woolgar
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262525381
- eISBN:
- 9780262319157
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262525381.003.0015
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
This chapter comprises brief commentaries by seven authors with long-standing and formative roles in studies of representational practice. Lorraine Daston speaks of intractable conceptual problems ...
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This chapter comprises brief commentaries by seven authors with long-standing and formative roles in studies of representational practice. Lorraine Daston speaks of intractable conceptual problems associated with the very idea of representation and argues that we need to shift from epistemological to ontological treatments of images. Michael Lynch reflects on the ways in which philosophical pictures hold us captive, in earlier times with respect to reference, and more recently with respect to information. Steve Woolgar looks back on various attempts to problematize and displace the notion of representation since the publication of the earlier volume. Lucy Suchman calls for a greater measure of reflexivity in our studies of representation, to understand what exclusions we generate through our own practices of articulating and bounding the phenomena we study. John Law asks us to attend to the “collateral realities” that are being “done” at the periphery of what representation in scientific practice is ostensibly about. Martin Kemp discusses how visual images and graphics are used to evoke “reality,” as though directly on the page or screen. Bruno Latour argues that the supposed “gap” between previously unknown realities and visual images is densely populated by “long cascades of successive traces.” These seven short pieces comment on the nature and prospects of studies of representation in general. In this vein, they reference the “big” themes of representation— for example, epistemology, ontology, visualization, and trust. The commentaries thus provide an interesting complement to the empirical case studies in the book. Whereas the latter deliver a crucial deflationary effect— “science” is brought down to earth, made commonplace and subject to epistemic leveling; the “elevator words” in philosophy of science are unloaded at the ground floor (Hacking 1999, 21ff)— these final commentaries remind us about the traps, troubles, and taken-for-granted assumptions that continue to characterize even the very best empirical studies of representational work. Reference Hacking, Ian. 1999. The Social Construction of What? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Less
This chapter comprises brief commentaries by seven authors with long-standing and formative roles in studies of representational practice. Lorraine Daston speaks of intractable conceptual problems associated with the very idea of representation and argues that we need to shift from epistemological to ontological treatments of images. Michael Lynch reflects on the ways in which philosophical pictures hold us captive, in earlier times with respect to reference, and more recently with respect to information. Steve Woolgar looks back on various attempts to problematize and displace the notion of representation since the publication of the earlier volume. Lucy Suchman calls for a greater measure of reflexivity in our studies of representation, to understand what exclusions we generate through our own practices of articulating and bounding the phenomena we study. John Law asks us to attend to the “collateral realities” that are being “done” at the periphery of what representation in scientific practice is ostensibly about. Martin Kemp discusses how visual images and graphics are used to evoke “reality,” as though directly on the page or screen. Bruno Latour argues that the supposed “gap” between previously unknown realities and visual images is densely populated by “long cascades of successive traces.” These seven short pieces comment on the nature and prospects of studies of representation in general. In this vein, they reference the “big” themes of representation— for example, epistemology, ontology, visualization, and trust. The commentaries thus provide an interesting complement to the empirical case studies in the book. Whereas the latter deliver a crucial deflationary effect— “science” is brought down to earth, made commonplace and subject to epistemic leveling; the “elevator words” in philosophy of science are unloaded at the ground floor (Hacking 1999, 21ff)— these final commentaries remind us about the traps, troubles, and taken-for-granted assumptions that continue to characterize even the very best empirical studies of representational work. Reference Hacking, Ian. 1999. The Social Construction of What? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Didier Debaise
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474423045
- eISBN:
- 9781474438612
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474423045.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
Can experience be thought systematically without transforming the richness of the world as it is lived into reductive philosophical generalities? Can the method of empiricism ever be reconciled with ...
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Can experience be thought systematically without transforming the richness of the world as it is lived into reductive philosophical generalities? Can the method of empiricism ever be reconciled with a method of systematic cosmological speculation? Didier Debaise’s reading of Whitehead shows clearly what a philosophy that makes this possible looks like, how it works and what is at stake. He focuses in on Whitehead’s attempt to construct a metaphysical system of everything in the universe that exists whilst simultaneously claiming that it can account for every element of our experience: everything enjoyed and perceived, willed or thought.Less
Can experience be thought systematically without transforming the richness of the world as it is lived into reductive philosophical generalities? Can the method of empiricism ever be reconciled with a method of systematic cosmological speculation? Didier Debaise’s reading of Whitehead shows clearly what a philosophy that makes this possible looks like, how it works and what is at stake. He focuses in on Whitehead’s attempt to construct a metaphysical system of everything in the universe that exists whilst simultaneously claiming that it can account for every element of our experience: everything enjoyed and perceived, willed or thought.
Robert Arp, Barry Smith, and Andrew D. Spear
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262527811
- eISBN:
- 9780262329583
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262527811.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
We introduce Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), a top-level realist ontology originally developed for use in the design of domain ontologies for natural science but now used also in other domains, ...
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We introduce Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), a top-level realist ontology originally developed for use in the design of domain ontologies for natural science but now used also in other domains, including defense and government administration. BFO is based on a fundamental distinction between continuants – entities which endure through time – and occurrents – entities which occur in time. We focus on the continuant side of BFO, including independent continuants (material entities, including objects, their material parts and their boundaries), dependent continuants (attributes of material entities, including qualities, roles and functions), and the spatial regions in which material entities are located. Qualities, roles and functions are subtypes of continuant because they can endure through time. For example a role – such as the student role – exists, and can be realized, on successive days; or a function – such as the function of the heart to pump blood – exists, and can be exercised over many years.Less
We introduce Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), a top-level realist ontology originally developed for use in the design of domain ontologies for natural science but now used also in other domains, including defense and government administration. BFO is based on a fundamental distinction between continuants – entities which endure through time – and occurrents – entities which occur in time. We focus on the continuant side of BFO, including independent continuants (material entities, including objects, their material parts and their boundaries), dependent continuants (attributes of material entities, including qualities, roles and functions), and the spatial regions in which material entities are located. Qualities, roles and functions are subtypes of continuant because they can endure through time. For example a role – such as the student role – exists, and can be realized, on successive days; or a function – such as the function of the heart to pump blood – exists, and can be exercised over many years.
Robert Arp, Barry Smith, and Andrew D. Spear
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262527811
- eISBN:
- 9780262329583
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262527811.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
We here describe the occurrent side of BFO, including the BFO categories of process, process boundary, spatiotemporal region, and temporal region. As objects are located in spatial regions, so ...
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We here describe the occurrent side of BFO, including the BFO categories of process, process boundary, spatiotemporal region, and temporal region. As objects are located in spatial regions, so processes are located in spatiotemporal regions. Processes are related to objects through the relation of participation, as when one object participates with another object in the process of colliding. BFO is an ontology which rests on the open world assumption. Thus it does not make any claim to completeness. This chapter concludes with some considerations on the implications of this assumption for BFO’s treatment of the continuant and occurrent categories and for BFO’s perspectivalism.Less
We here describe the occurrent side of BFO, including the BFO categories of process, process boundary, spatiotemporal region, and temporal region. As objects are located in spatial regions, so processes are located in spatiotemporal regions. Processes are related to objects through the relation of participation, as when one object participates with another object in the process of colliding. BFO is an ontology which rests on the open world assumption. Thus it does not make any claim to completeness. This chapter concludes with some considerations on the implications of this assumption for BFO’s treatment of the continuant and occurrent categories and for BFO’s perspectivalism.
Howard Chiang (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719096006
- eISBN:
- 9781781708460
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719096006.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This collection expands the history of Chinese medicine by bridging the philosophical concerns of epistemology and the history and cultural politics of transregional medical formations. Topics range ...
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This collection expands the history of Chinese medicine by bridging the philosophical concerns of epistemology and the history and cultural politics of transregional medical formations. Topics range from the spread of gingko’s popularity from East Asia to the West to the appeal of acupuncture for complementing in-vitro fertilization regimens, from the modernization of Chinese anatomy and forensic science to the evolving perceptions of the clinical efficacy of Chinese medicine. The individual essays cohere around the powerful theoretical-methodological approach, “historical epistemology,” with which scholars in science studies have already challenged the seemingly constant and timeless status of such rudimentary but pivotal dimensions of scientific process as knowledge, reason, argument, objectivity, evidence, fact, and truth. Yet given that landmark studies in historical epistemology rarely navigate outside the intellectual landscape of Western science and medicine, this book broadens our understanding of its application and significance by drawing on and exploring the rich cultures of Chinese medicine. In studying the globalizing role of medical objects, the contested premise of medical authority and legitimacy, and the syncretic transformations of metaphysical and ontological knowledge, contributors illuminate how the breadth of the historical study of Chinese medicine and its practices of knowledge-making in the modern period must be at once philosophical and transnational in scope. This book will appeal to students and scholars working in science studies and medical humanities as well as readers who are interested in the broader problems of translation, material culture, and the global circulation of knowledge.Less
This collection expands the history of Chinese medicine by bridging the philosophical concerns of epistemology and the history and cultural politics of transregional medical formations. Topics range from the spread of gingko’s popularity from East Asia to the West to the appeal of acupuncture for complementing in-vitro fertilization regimens, from the modernization of Chinese anatomy and forensic science to the evolving perceptions of the clinical efficacy of Chinese medicine. The individual essays cohere around the powerful theoretical-methodological approach, “historical epistemology,” with which scholars in science studies have already challenged the seemingly constant and timeless status of such rudimentary but pivotal dimensions of scientific process as knowledge, reason, argument, objectivity, evidence, fact, and truth. Yet given that landmark studies in historical epistemology rarely navigate outside the intellectual landscape of Western science and medicine, this book broadens our understanding of its application and significance by drawing on and exploring the rich cultures of Chinese medicine. In studying the globalizing role of medical objects, the contested premise of medical authority and legitimacy, and the syncretic transformations of metaphysical and ontological knowledge, contributors illuminate how the breadth of the historical study of Chinese medicine and its practices of knowledge-making in the modern period must be at once philosophical and transnational in scope. This book will appeal to students and scholars working in science studies and medical humanities as well as readers who are interested in the broader problems of translation, material culture, and the global circulation of knowledge.
Bryce Huebner
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199926275
- eISBN:
- 9780199347193
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199926275.003.0010
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, General
This chapter briefly summarizes the main conclusions of the book. It lays out the core elements of the macrocognitive approach to collective mentality, and serves as a reminder that collective ...
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This chapter briefly summarizes the main conclusions of the book. It lays out the core elements of the macrocognitive approach to collective mentality, and serves as a reminder that collective mentality is likely to be rare, and where it arises, quite minimal. These arguments are then briefly situated within a broader set of claims about social ontology and social epistemology.Less
This chapter briefly summarizes the main conclusions of the book. It lays out the core elements of the macrocognitive approach to collective mentality, and serves as a reminder that collective mentality is likely to be rare, and where it arises, quite minimal. These arguments are then briefly situated within a broader set of claims about social ontology and social epistemology.
Oliver J.T. Harris
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780197265758
- eISBN:
- 9780191771965
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265758.003.0017
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
This chapter argues that, despite some valiant attempts, archaeologists are still struggling with fundamental tensions between science and theory, and in effect, between nature and culture. These ...
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This chapter argues that, despite some valiant attempts, archaeologists are still struggling with fundamental tensions between science and theory, and in effect, between nature and culture. These oppositions have been a particular bone of contention in the transition to farming, and continue to frustrate attempts to move the debate forward. By drawing on wider discussions of a potential ‘ontological turn’ in archaeology, and in particular the potential for thinking through the past as assemblages of vibrant matter, the chapter outlines an alternative perspective. This is then applied to two sites in Britain, one Mesolithic and one Neolithic, to examine how turning to this approach might open up new understandings of the similarities and differences between the two periods, and set the stage for a reconsideration of the transition itself.Less
This chapter argues that, despite some valiant attempts, archaeologists are still struggling with fundamental tensions between science and theory, and in effect, between nature and culture. These oppositions have been a particular bone of contention in the transition to farming, and continue to frustrate attempts to move the debate forward. By drawing on wider discussions of a potential ‘ontological turn’ in archaeology, and in particular the potential for thinking through the past as assemblages of vibrant matter, the chapter outlines an alternative perspective. This is then applied to two sites in Britain, one Mesolithic and one Neolithic, to examine how turning to this approach might open up new understandings of the similarities and differences between the two periods, and set the stage for a reconsideration of the transition itself.
Christopher Watkin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748640577
- eISBN:
- 9780748671793
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640577.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This final chapter returns to the question of justice in order to investigate how Badiou, Nancy and Meillassoux each seek to secure a notion of universal justice. Meillassoux seeks such a justice in ...
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This final chapter returns to the question of justice in order to investigate how Badiou, Nancy and Meillassoux each seek to secure a notion of universal justice. Meillassoux seeks such a justice in terms of what he calls the philosophical divine, faith in the future existence of the Child of Man, a currently non-existent deity, and faith in the possibility of the resurrection of the dead. For his part, Nancy has a universal demand for justice, a demand that the ‘ontological communism’ of singular plural being be mirrored in social relations. Badiou brings a justice in principle open to all, but of which only some avail themselves when they become incorporated into an Idea. Badiou’s axiomatic account of capital and communism is compared with Nancy’s ontological justice, and the conclusion is drawn that the difference between Idea and singular plural being, between eidos and ethos, traces a fundamental fault line between Nancy’s and Badiou’s communism.Less
This final chapter returns to the question of justice in order to investigate how Badiou, Nancy and Meillassoux each seek to secure a notion of universal justice. Meillassoux seeks such a justice in terms of what he calls the philosophical divine, faith in the future existence of the Child of Man, a currently non-existent deity, and faith in the possibility of the resurrection of the dead. For his part, Nancy has a universal demand for justice, a demand that the ‘ontological communism’ of singular plural being be mirrored in social relations. Badiou brings a justice in principle open to all, but of which only some avail themselves when they become incorporated into an Idea. Badiou’s axiomatic account of capital and communism is compared with Nancy’s ontological justice, and the conclusion is drawn that the difference between Idea and singular plural being, between eidos and ethos, traces a fundamental fault line between Nancy’s and Badiou’s communism.
Frank Chouraqui
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823254118
- eISBN:
- 9780823261116
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823254118.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This short transitional section reformulates the acquisitions of Nietzsche’s cosmological thought in terms of his encounter with phenomenological ontology through Heidegger’s engagement with him. It ...
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This short transitional section reformulates the acquisitions of Nietzsche’s cosmological thought in terms of his encounter with phenomenological ontology through Heidegger’s engagement with him. It is argued that like Merleau-Ponty, Nietzsche regarded the failure of self-identity to be the essential feature of Being and therefore that his refusal to exit metaphysics, which Heidegger laments, is in fact more conform to Being than Heideggerian ontology insofar as it refuses to hypostasize the ontological difference. For Nietzsche and Merleau-Ponty alike, there is no Being outside of the beings.Less
This short transitional section reformulates the acquisitions of Nietzsche’s cosmological thought in terms of his encounter with phenomenological ontology through Heidegger’s engagement with him. It is argued that like Merleau-Ponty, Nietzsche regarded the failure of self-identity to be the essential feature of Being and therefore that his refusal to exit metaphysics, which Heidegger laments, is in fact more conform to Being than Heideggerian ontology insofar as it refuses to hypostasize the ontological difference. For Nietzsche and Merleau-Ponty alike, there is no Being outside of the beings.
