1 The Ontology of Documents Barry Smith

2 Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 11 Think of the tools in a tool-box: there is a hammer, pliers, a saw, a screw-driver, a ruler, a glue-pot, glue, nails and screw. —The functions of words are as diverse as the functions of these objects.

3 Speech Act Theory Language as TOOLBOX We tell people how things are (assertives) We try to get them to do things (directives) We commit ourselves to doing things (commissives) We express our feelings and attitudes (expressives) We bring about changes in the world merely through our utterances (declarations)

4 The Searle thesis claims and obligations and deontic powers are brought into existence by the performance of speech acts (acts of promising, marrying, accusing... )

5 appointings, marryings, promisings change the world if certain background conditions are satisfied: valid formulation legitimate authority acceptance by addressees

6 A speech act is instantaneous we perform a speech act the world changes

7 The need for a trace a new entity comes into being – a claim, obligation, right, power, name, office which survives for an extended period of time What is the physical basis for this extended existence? The memories of those involved? Or documents? Writing creates permanent, re-usable meaning Documents create traceable liability

8 Documents provide a reliable way for the social/institutional objects brought into existence by speech acts to endure through time Such objects can thereby also serve as the basis for new social objects of a higher-order giving rise to what Searle calls a ‘huge invisible ontology’

9 Jack Goody, The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society (1986) The very fact that laws exist in written form makes a profound difference, first to the nature of its sources, secondly to the ways of changing the rules, thirdly to the judicial process, and fourthly to court organization. Indeed it touches upon the nature of rules themselves.

10 The price system A system of telecommunications which enables individual producers to watch merely the movement of a few pointers, as an engineer might watch the hands of a few dials (Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society”)

11 The Hayek thesis: the price system is a mechanism for communicating, in the form of abbreviated signals, the most essential information relevant to our economic behaviour

12 Hernando de Soto The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else New York: Basic Books, 2000

13 The de Soto Thesis the invisible infrastructure of asset management upon which the astonishing fecundity of Western capitalism rests is both created and held together by documents, by property records and titles, which capture what is economically meaningful about the corresponding assets

14 The generalized de Soto thesis The document system is a mechanism for creating the institutional orders of modern societies and for making possible the types of abbreviated signals which provide the most essential information relevant to our social behavior (even price lists are documents)

15 The creative powers of documents stock and share certificates create capital identity documents create identities examination documents create the various levels of the Chinese civil service cadastral maps create real estate parcels marriage license creates bonds of matrimony bankruptcy certificate creates bankrupt statutes of incorporation create companies title deeds create property rights and property owners insurance certificate creates insurance coverage create = create AND sustain

16 The creative power of documents documents create authorities (physicians’ license creates physician) authorities create documents (physician creates sick note) Documents issued by an authority (validly, fraudulently...)

17 The source of extralegal law Documents issued by an authority within the framework of a valid legal institution vs. issued by an authority extralegally on its own behalf (cf. the US Declaration of Independence – extralegal law of the Mwenyekiti)

18 Problem: If documents create (parts of) social reality how cope with the fact that social reality can involve contradictions? (Problem for Searle’s ontology of social reality – according to which X is Y if X counts as Y in a given social context C)

19 Identity documents create identity and thereby create the possibility of identity theft

20 Directions of fit between language and reality from word to world (words must fit world) assertives (statements, descriptions) from world to word (world must be made to fit word) directives (commands, requests, entreaties) commisives (promises): bind the speaker to perform a certain action in the future

21 Organizational chart a map of the organization and of its flows of authority (a system of positional roles in the document represents [creates?] the system of positional roles which is the organization)

22 Non-Documents novel textbook newspaper advertizing flier timetable recipe map prayer business card LINGUISTIC ARTIFACTS WHICH EXIST PRIMARILY AS TYPES (cf. Ingarden on the work of literature) Documents license birth certificate death certificate degree certificate deed contract will receipt passport LINGUISTIC ARTIFACTS WHICH EXIST PRIMARILY AS TOKENS

23 Non-Documents Documents Made of paper Not made of paper novel textbook newspaper advertizing flier timetable recipe map business card Leonardo cartoon license degree certificate deed contract will receipt road sign advertizing hoarding car badging gravestone silver hallmark clay tablet e-document electronic health record movie clapper credit card

24 declarative/descriptive documents plus something more title/deed/cadastral map (gives rights) price tag/pricelist (makes commitments) patent (gives rights) license/degree certificate (gives rights) statement of accounts (?) identity card/passport (gives rights) membership card (gives rights) birth certificate (?) death certificate (? connected to other documents/e.g. voting records) marriage license (gives rights and obligations) divorce decree (gives rights and obligations)

25 Other kinds of documents partnership agreement/ statute of incorporation proxy form/representation agreement tax form minutes of a meeting ballot form residence permit census report stock certificate insurance claim form insurance policy visa/immigration document insurance card/health insurance card health certificate consent form (for medical procedure) medical record criminal record Führungszeugnis pension book rent book accident report/theft report/police report/charge bankruptcy certificate

26 More examples architects plan urban plan engineering drawing city survey census form lab note medical progress note discharge summary insurance certificate marriage license, letter of credit

27 Further distinctions documents which need to be displayed (e.g. a price list) documents which need to be filled in vs. documents which are self-contained documents filled in completely/partially correctly/incorrectly validly/invalidly

28 What you can do to and with a document [DOCUMENT EVENTS] Sign it Stamp it Witness it Fill it in Revise it Nullify it Realize (interrupt, abort...) actions mandated by it Deliver it (de facto, de jure) Declare it active/inactive Register it Archive it Destroy it

29 DOCUMENT EVENTS All the mentioned event-types are independent of the document content and purpose a Easily trasferrable to new applications (e.g. credit approval). They are about human interaction via a document in the abstract. They are essentially several lists of names attached to document portions that are also linked into whole documents.

30 Ontology of document registries If you have a company registry with 600 names, but only 150 companies actually exist, the registry is useless

31 fingerprint official stamp photograph bar code, cow brand car license plate numbered plot for street trader allow cross-referencing to documents knowledge by acquaintance knowledge by description knowledge by comparison

32 Anchoring How photographs, maps, fingerprints, unique IDs anchor documents to corresponding entities in reality ?

33 Epistemological use of documents I use my passport to prove my identity You use my passport to check my identity –Knowledge by acquaintance –Knowledge by description –Knowledge by comparison

34 anchoring documents to reality how will the ontology of documents look when e- documents are incorporated?

35 Attachment One document attached to another (documents can talk to each other; they can be filed with each other) The relations between documents then map corresponding relations between the realities documented

36 Splitting documents can be split (hat check, torn dollar bill) documents can have a firework style history of initiating new actions... (Kanban)

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38 Documents and their addressees Each kind of document has an associated kind of public 1.the creators of the document-template (legislators, drafters...) 2.the guardians of the document (solicitors, notaries...) 3.the fillers-in of the document (this is the central target audience) 4.the recipients of the document (registrars,...) 5.Who else?

39 Bundling documents to create networks One document attached to a copy of another document The relations between documents then map corresponding relations between the realities documented

40 Good documents vs. bad documents Problem with Goody and the literature on literacy They say: massive documentation created the conditions of modern civilization they neglect the degree to which totalitarian societies, too, were made possible by documentation

41 Standardized forms Template followed by filling in First step towards standardized products is a plan, a description, a template, which can be filled in (brand identity))

42 Document vs. standardized form/template documents filled in completely/partially correctly/incorrectly validly/invalidly

43 Standardized documents allow networking across time (documents can accumulate through attachment) across space (different groups can orientate themselves around the same document forms)

44 Good documents vs. bad documents Good documents must be well-designed 1.they must map the corresponding reality in a perspicuous way – cf. maps as document 2.they must be easy to fill in by members of its central target audience (need for process of education?) 3.they must not create new problems (should bow off the stage once they have been properly filled in and never be seen again except in those rare cases where problems arise)

45 Documents which depend on other documents Car insurance document depends on residence permit depends on employment contract depends on health certificate depends on physician’s license to practice depends on degree certificate depends on examination document depends on examination script...

46 Documents which depend on other documents Permission to return damaged goods depends on delivery confirmation document depends on shipment document depends on receipt depends on bill depends on order depends on price-list

47 The ontology of names a baptism ceremony creates a new sort of cultural object called a name this is an abstract yet time-bound object, like a nation or a club it is an object with parts (your first name and your last name are parts of your name, in something like the way in which the first movement and the last movement are parts of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony)

48 The ontology of signatures documents needing signatures signed/not signed/incorrectly signed/ fraudulently signed/signed and stamped signed by proxy with a single/with a plurality of signatories

49 Countersignatures

50 The document system is more than just documents Here too background conditions must be satisfied Hence, too, a document – a baptismal certificate a marriage license... – is more than just a piece of paper – may need to be registered, archived, stamped

51 Each document has a jurisdiction issue of enforceability documents create actionable liability collections expense of resort to district courts...

52 Definition x is a document =def x is a (potentially permanent) record of time- sensitive information, which is of a type instances of which are reliably used as constituents of instances of corresponding types of complex social actions

53 END