1. GOL A General Ontological Language Barry Smith Heinrich Herre Barbara Heller

2. Aims of the Project GOL Development of a well-founded ontological theory (a theory of everything) based on philosophical principles (truths) Testing of this theory in the medical domain

3. Motivation Every domain-specific ontology must use some upper-level ontology Standard upper-level ontological languages such as KIF, CycL, F-logic -are confined to set-theoretical construction principles -and to modelling

4. EMPIRICAL TEST: Standard classification systems in medicine such as GALEN, UMLS, SNOMED are correspondingly weak and have a series of well-understood defects? Question: Can we do better with a single, principled top-level theoretically grounded ontology than with pragmatically conceived modelling ontologies?

5. Real ontology We want to work with the real things directly not with set-theoretical substitutes

6. Real ontology and with the ontological relations between urelements which exist independently of set-theoretical structures, for example part-whole relations, inherence relations, exemplification relations

7. Ontology versus Set Theory The facile translation of ontological relations into sets removes the possibility of our gaining insight into reality We should look at the real world directly and not through the distorting lens of set theory

8. Hierarchy of Categories Entity Relation SetUrelement UniversalIndividual TopoidSubstanceMomentChronoidSituoid formalmaterial

9. Some Basic Relations x is part of y x is an instantiation of y x inheres in y x frames y x is located in y x is element of y (?)

10. Sets vs. Urelements Sets are abstract entities are independent of space and time determined by their extensions Urelements are not sets have an internal structure and stand in relations which the membership relation cannot unfold

11. Two sorts of urelements Individuals belong to the realm of concrete things exist in space and time Universals are multiply instantiated (by individuals) are to a degree independent of space and time are (roughly): patterns of features realized by their instances

12. Substance exists in and of itself possesses material bulk occupies space and is extended in time bears qualities (accidents) Examples you and me, the moon, a tennis ball, a house, a desk

13. Moments can exist only in a substance (or between substances) are dynamic can be lost over time Examples actions, passions, a blush, a handshake, a thought (Accidents, Tropes, Events, Processes)

14. Situoids Example: John’s kissing of Mary in a certain environment, surrounding, setting (Not the mereological sum of John, kissing, Mary, environment)

15. Situoids always imply a certain cut through reality, which means: a certain granularity and point of view -- the category of situoids is a basic category, but instances of this category are not part of the basic ontology

16. Situoids have a location in space and time are framed by a certain spatial region (called a topoid) and a certain temporal interval (called a chronoid)

17. Chronoids, Topoids Chronoids are temporal durations Topoids are spatial regions having a certain mereotopological structure Assumption Chronoids and Topoids have no independent existence, they depend on the situoids which they frame