Formal Ontology

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

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2. Res, Ens and Aliquid

   • Roberto Poli

   Pages 1-26

3. Conceptual Realism as a Formal Ontology

   • Nino B. Cocchiarella

   Pages 27-60

4. The Way of Truth

   • Jerzy Perzanowski

   Pages 61-130

5. Existence and Correspondence-to-Fact

   • Fred Sommers

   Pages 131-158

6. A World of States of Affairs

   • David M. Armstrong

   Pages 159-171

7. A Formal Ontology of Situations

   • Mieczyslaw Omyla

   Pages 173-187

8. Attributives, Their First Denotative Correlates, Complex Predicates and Free Logics

   • Karel Lambert

   Pages 189-198

9. Formal and Material Ontology

   • Liliana Albertazzi

   Pages 199-232

10. Physics and the Phenomenal World

    • Jean Petitot, Barry Smith

    Pages 233-253

11. Aspects of the Mereology of Artifacts

    • Peter M. Simons, Charles W. Dement

    Pages 255-276

12. Physical Addition

    • Ingvar Johansson

    Pages 277-288

13. Back Matter

    Pages 289-296

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Formal ontology combines two ideas, one originating with Husserl, the other with Frege: that of ontology of the formal aspects of all objects, irrespective of their particular nature, and ontology pursued by employing the tools of modern formal disciplines, notably logic and semantics. These two traditions have converged in recent years and this is the first collection to encompass them as a whole in a single volume. It assembles essays from authors around the world already widely known for their work in formal ontology, and illustrates that through the application of formal methods the ancient discipline of ontology may be put on a firm methodological basis. The essays not only illuminate the nature of ontology and its relation to other areas, in language, logic and everyday life, but also demonstrate that common issues from the analytical and phenomenological traditions may be discussed without ideological barriers.
Audience: advanced students of and specialists in philosophy, linguistics, cognitive science, computer science, database engineering.

• Edmund Husserl
• concept
• logic
• ontology
• truth

• Department of Sociology and Social Research, Trento, Italy

  Roberto Poli

• Department of Philosophy, Leeds, UK

  Peter Simons

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