Questions tagged [ontology]

Ontology is the study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations.

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How might one fundamentally define the difference between indefinite and definite nouns?

I am exploring ologs, a way of diagramming conceptual relationships. I am trying to understand if it is necessary for the nodes or objects of an olog to should be restricted to represent only classes ...
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Is there a work of fiction so "fictional" that is so different from our everyday reality that there is 'absolutely' nothing similar to it [closed]

Can one produce/write a work of fiction that is so fictional that there is no connection to anything within the real world? If not, why? And what I mean by connection is that there is no relation in ...
How why e's user avatar
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Is knowledge non-physical?

What is the fundamental nature/ontology of knowledge? Is knowledge a physical state? Is knowledge a specific arrangement of physical particles in a brain, a book, a solid-state drive, a GPU, etc.? Or ...
Mark's user avatar
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topdown bottomup approach in complex systems

In continuation to question Topdown bottom up reductionism emergentism my second question is ; in complex system, like the economy, which are highly complex systems where it is often impossible to ...
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Are there any really interesting contemporary philosophers analyzing what a Wikipedia article should be like as compared to what it is like?

I have often considered that there could be a better explicit formula for how a Wikipedia page should be written but I have not yet formulated any such principles. My main issue is that ideally a ...
Julius Hamilton's user avatar
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Arguments Against Quantifier Neutralism?

Are there any good arguments for rejecting quantifier neutrality advocated in Azzouni’s “Ontology Without Borders”?
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What does Kant mean by "objects" in BXVI-BXIX of his Critique of Pure Reason?

In the discussion leading up to BXVI Kant consideres the application of reason to empirical cognition as in physical experiments, or to theoretical cognition as in mathematics. In these cases the ...
Steven Thomas Hatton's user avatar
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(Where) In his Critique of Pure Reason did Kant say that things-in-themselves represented in thought are persumed to exist?

Reading Kant in the German language original is probably challenging enough. Being at the mercy of a translator certainly exacerbates the difficulty. So, this may have appeared in one, but not all ...
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human life is based on suspicion and assumption, rather than certainty?

A murder occurred, so the police came to the house where the crime took place, and as soon as they entered, they found a person whose clothes were stained with blood and carrying a knife in his hand. ...
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Emanation by the One according to Plotinus

How is Mind (Nous) formed from "the One” according to Plotinus? What is the mechanism of this phenomenon? Why is it Nous, and not the Soul or something else, that is the first emanation?
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What is a system?

Informally, a system of the kind I'm asking about is an arrangement of physical components that interact causally with each other and with an external environment. For example: a pendulum, a car, a ...
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Mutually contradictory but simultaneously correct

In continuation of Two competing theories that are logically inconsistent my second question is there can be a theory/framework which can be interpreted in many mutually contradictory but ...
quanity's user avatar
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Is there anything more fundamental than quantification?

In the prevailing view of the concept of "Existence," it is well-known that it isn't a property of individual objects, but rather a property of properties. As Frege would put it: It is a ...
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Do descriptions of what exist map to causes recognized by Man? Can we describe coherent models for broad patterns of knowledge? [closed]

EDIT 0 - To clarify, in the table below, the term God would be missing from it's provisional box for humans who map ultimate causes exclusively to non-moral, aka natural, types of cause. Sigmund Freud,...
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Did god create logic? [duplicate]

If God made logic, the process itself requires pre-existing logic. Since logic must be eternal, it's doubtful God created it. Did God create logic, or is it always there?
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Are there or have there been notable philosophers who believe in Nullism?

Monism is the philosophical view that only one thing exists. However, I want to know, if there are or have been notable philosophers who believe in Nullism? I made up that term, to describe the belief ...
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Is reality a "societal construct"? [closed]

What does it mean to say reality actually exists? Is it a product of society? If time - the fourth dimension is a societal construct, then shouldn't reality also be one?
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What would Alexius Meinong have thought about this Mark Twain witticism?

Consider the following Mark Twain witticism: I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born [sic], and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. ...
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Reductionism from a philosophical viewpoint

Reductionism is the idea that knowledge at a higher level can be deduced from the entities and their interaction at a lower level. E.g. the claim that the properties of molecules can be deduced from ...
quanity's user avatar
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What philosophy did Nietzsche base his idea of "amor fati" on?

I've heard alot of people say that Nietzsche made his idea on amor fati from stoicism or stoic principles, is that true?
Muhhamedbinghazi's user avatar
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6 answers
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What are the arguments for or against the wavefunction being a subjective vs an objective entity?

This question is related to the measurement problem in Quantum Mechanics. I want arguments in favor or against of these two viewpoints: The wavefunction is the ontological state of existence of ...
Ryder Rude's user avatar
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How should one answer the question ‘What is X?’?

This is sort of a thought experiment. I am not sure I expect it to mature into a canonical question, but I hope to have a little discussion through it. Imagine someone asks “What is/are X?”, where X ...
Julius Hamilton's user avatar
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In analytic philosophy, what's the difference between something existing and being real?

In analytic philosophy, the dominant view has it that things are real iff they exist mind independently (i.e. they exist apart from our beliefs, concepts, cultural practices etc.). So there are two ...
Hal's user avatar
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What are the ontological implications of that “the universe is not locally real” in quantum mechanics?

Quantum mechanics is said to indicate that the universe is not “locally real”, because a particle is not in a defined state before measurement. But if a particle is not in a defined state, what is it ...
thinkingman's user avatar
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What can a person not categorize in the process of his knowledge acquisition?

When a subject learns about the world and gets experience as a result, he builds his own mental representations - thereby essentially differentiating the world (that is, dividing it into abstract ...
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What does "everything" mean?

For starter, I'm not a student in philosophy, but mathematics. I only have a general knowledge in logic and set theory, all in the context of mathematics. My question comes from a doubt I got while ...
Alessandro Nanto's user avatar
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What does mean “realitas objectiva” in scholastic ontology?

Descartes uses the term in his third meditation (Med. III) to demonstrate the existence of God, see a previous question. The term “realitas objectiva” is a technical term from scholastic ontology. ...
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Can we paint or draw imaginary or nonexistent objects? [closed]

You know, imagainary objects are concepts and nonexistent objects don't have properties. I can't imagine drawing concepts (=imaginary objects) or nonexistent objects which we can't even see. Can we ...
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Chaos vs statistical mechanics vs complexity science

could someone shed some light on difference between chaos and complexity ? What is the difference both ontological and epistemological between complexity science and statistical mechanics ?
quanity's user avatar
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11 votes
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What is the definition of real?

What is the definition of the word "real"? For example, we can all agree that Harry Potter and unicorns are not real, while Mount Everest and Mars are real. Some people even say ...
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Circularity in definition of Real

I'm having a hard time understanding the adjective 'real'. In some sense, we get that x is real iff x is in reality. So to say that y is a real boy, is to say that y is a boy, and y is in the ...
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Why do some philosphers including Russell paraphrase this sentence?

To say “Pegasus doesn’t exist” is to say “it is not the case that there is exactly one x which is a flying horse of Greek mythology”. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nonexistent-objects/ “Pegasus ...
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In what shape do opposites exist?

A common notion is that the opposite of “cold” is “warm” and that the opposite of “slow” is “fast”. Would it be equally correct to say that the opposite of “cold” is “fast”? How come that most people ...
Ethan Brown's user avatar
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Do philosophers analyze the term 'thing'?

'Thing' seems like a special word since it can be used to refer to almost anything. Is it an undefined term, or have philosophers tried to define it? If they haven't analyzed it, is there a similar ...
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Is Bhaskar's argument, that epistemology and ontology are separate, correct?

Roy Bhaskar [1] is credited with developing a version of Critical Realism [2] with applications in the social sciences. What is the meaning of Roy Bhaskar's notion of epistemic fallacy (as distinct ...
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Is the hallucination hypothesis always the best explanation?

Suppose there are two persons A and B. A attests to having witnessed some extraordinary event, e.g. A claims to have had an extraordinary religious experience with an other-worldly entity. Let's say ...
Mark's user avatar
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Is there a theory that if something doesn't exist, it isn't...?

In a casual sense, if ,for example, wind didn't exist, wind didn't blow my hair, wind didn't swing anything, wind didn't come into any place, etc. Likewise, I think if something doesn't exist, it ...
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Numbers and Time

This is my first post on philosophy stack exchange, so I apologize in advance if this question is not well-defined or if it happens to be a duplicate. If so, feel free to link the corresponding post(s)...
John Smith's user avatar
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How will you describe ontology of God?

I am trying to understand ontology. Suppose God exists then how will you describe the ontology of God? (Several texts have been written in praise of God ,Allah etc … Those books gives some credence to ...
Dheeraj Verma's user avatar
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5 answers
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What's the difference between noneism and abstractionism?

I know what noneists and abstractionists say the difference is, I just don't grasp the difference. Noneism and abstractionism are two approaches to objects like numbers, fictional character, ...
David Gudeman's user avatar
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2 answers
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Can only one object exist?

Suppose so, then: What exactly can distinguish it from not existing, if the object itself is all there is? Any object trivially maps to itself via identity, so in order to deviate from the trivial ...
Myers Hertz's user avatar
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1 answer
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Which mathematical operations leave the ontology invariant? [closed]

So usually one maps a math equation to an ontology in physics. Imagine me modelling a ball rolling up an inclined plane at an arbitrary angle. Now, the moment I make the inclined angle 90 degrees to ...
More Anonymous's user avatar
2 votes
5 answers
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Can any part of existence be considered as information?

Can any part of existence be considered as information? I was thinking about it and anything that exist literally can be thought as information, but is there an exception to this rule? Is nothingness ...
Sayaman's user avatar
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Can location be assigned to an entity, given a lack of length, depth, or width?

If one is to postulate an entity that has a complete or absolute lack of height, depth, and width, can such an entity be located anywhere? Or does attribution of location to an entity entail length, ...
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Can we evaluate life, existence and/or consciousness itself according to criteria that exist within it?

The idea of a criteria, of evaluation, of meaning, of assigning characteristics, of judging things as positive or negative or neutral, only exists as a subset of existence as far as I can tell. In ...
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Is everything identical to itself, or merely every existing thing?

One of the properties of identity is that everything is identical to itself. But, does "everything" mean literally everything, or merely every thing that exists? For example, I don't think 1/...
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What is 'an Ontological Evil'?

In various discussions touching upon topics between geopolitics, ethics, and general philosophy, I have seen the term used, in phrases such as 'please do not believe that members of [faction that both ...
vicky_molokh's user avatar
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2 answers
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Are ontologically reductive theories really that powerful?

There are numerous examples of ontological reduction, or elimination in the case of moral anti realism, the denial of the existence of a philosophical God (Russell's brute fact) and physicalism/...
sket's user avatar
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How many Platonic ideals are there?

Suppose you have an unripe banana that is yellow with a greenish tint. We could say that this banana partially embodies the platonic ideal of yellowness. We could also say that to a lesser degree it ...
Dimitris02's user avatar
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Does existence consist of two categories?

The two categories I wish to describe is: Eternal existence being uncaused and having always been Short term existences such as human consciousness or other types which are destructible from their ...
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