Ontology(being, wiki, forked, Proteus)
OntologieOntologia
Bernini, The Ecstasy
of St. Theresa, 1645-52
Ontology is the most fundamental branch of
Metaphysics, the study of
Being and
Existence, as well as the basic
Categories of things in general. A
Being is anything that can be said to 'be'
in various senses of the word 'be'. The verb "to be" has many different meanings and can therefore be rather
ambiguous, and because "to be" has so many different meanings, there are, accordingly, many different ways of Being.
Aristotle described Ontology as "the Science of Being
qua Being." The word "
qua", by the way, means "with regard to the aspect of". Accordingly, Ontology is the Science of Being with regard to the aspect of Being, the study of
beings in-so-far as they exist. Even more precisely, Ontology concerns how we determine what
Categories of Being are, which are fundamental, and whether or not, and in what sense, items in those categories can be said to "be."
Different
philosophers have made various lists of the fundamental Categories of Being throughout the
History of Philosophy. Before the rise of the
Sciences in the Western
Renaissance, Ontology, taken with
Metaphysics more generally, was the central focus of philosophical concern. One strong reason was because this directly related to
Theology (or the
Philosophy of Religion) and the existence of
God. Science directly challenged these connections, and slowly, Ontology was reduced to an historical curiosity. Representative ontological thought is readily cited, but ground-breaking work is found in
Plato,
Aristotle,
Neoplatonism,
Anselm of Canterbury,
Thomas Aquinas,
Rene Descartes,
Baruch Spinoza,
Gottfried Leibniz,
Immanuel Kant and
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, to name a few. In
Modern Philosophy and
Contemporary Philosophy, Ontology was taken up by physicists who were already asking very similar questions using the
Scientific Method.
To be sure, Ontology is being done today, though not under its ancient name. It is found in many branches of
Physics and the other
Sciences.
Quantum Mechanics,
String Theory, and
Quantum Philosophy in general, are direct descendants of the ontological traditions, which naturally grew beyond the historical distinctions between
Universals and
Particulars, into questions of
Particle States,
Dimensions and
Probabilities. The basic ontological questions of the nature of
Existence are even more relevant to Quantum Mechanics today, as notions of solid
Matter and any distinct, separate existence of
Objects are challenged by the new discoveries.
Even in areas seemingly unrelated to
Philosophy, such as
Computer Science, Ontology is about asking what a
Programming "object" is (not an easy question to answer, given various programming languages, schemas, and practices), and what types of computer
Architectures are to be used. In areas like
Marketing or
Sales, ontological issues lie right at the heart of what a "
Brand" is, and how to deal with "Brand Names" and even "Product Lines", not to mention the
Legal connections with
Intellectual Property and
Management connections with "Business Processes". In
Business as well as
Government, ontological questions abound about the use and Management of
Information, and how to gain a competitive advantage over an opponent or adversary though the manipulation of Information, either in a
Public Relations sense, or in a
Warfare one.
Quintessential Concepts and Questions
- What are physical Objects?
- Is it possible to give an account of the existence of physical Objects?
- What are an Object's Properties or Relations and how are they related to the Object itself?
- Is Existence a Property, Substance, or State?
- When does an object go out of Existence, as opposed to Change?
External Links
Aristotle's Definition and Modern Interpretations
Some content adapted from the Wikinfo article "Ontology" under the GNU Free Documentation License.
(last updated by Proteus, 5:18pm CDT - Sat, Apr 14 2007)
