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3 results

Ontological Categories

Ontological Categories
  • A Methodological Guide
  • Katarina Perovic
  • Published online:
    31 January 2024
    Print publication:
    29 February 2024
  • Ontology – the study of the most fundamental categories of being – lies at the very heart of metaphysics. The reason why it appears to be so central is because it takes on the following questions: What sorts of entities are there? What features do those entities have? How do they relate to one another? And so on. Section 1 of this Element presents a fast-paced historical overview of some of the notable approaches to these questions. Section 2 tells the story of how one of the oldest, most disputed, but also most developed ontological categories – universals – got introduced. Section 3 builds on the discussion of universals as it considers the desiderata for a promising system of ontological categories. And Section 4 looks at ways in which philosophers might break with tradition and explore some new ontological categories.

  • 9 - A Typology of Semantic Entities

  • from Part V - Typologizing and Ontologizing
  • Edited by Daniel Altshuler, University of Oxford
  • Book:
    Linguistics Meets Philosophy
    Published online:
    06 October 2022
    Print publication:
    13 October 2022, pp 277-301

  • Summary

    The goal of this paper is to discuss which basic semantic entities we should include in our formal semantic ontology, and on which principles we should include them (cf. Bach 1986b). The vast majority of formal theories employ individuals as a basic type; they represent quantification over, modification of, and reference to individuals. But many theories include additional types or entities, including possible worlds, but also less common ones like vectors. Some papers have argued that types should be constrained or reduced; others that they should be proliferated. I present some representative arguments on both sides and suggest a path forward in evaluating them against one another.