Http://ifomis.org 1 Sprechakte und Dokumentenakte Barry Smith Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science Saarbrücken Department of Philosophy

http://ifomis.org 1

Sprechakte und Dokumentenakte

Barry Smith

Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science Saarbrücken

Department of PhilosophyUniversity at Buffalo

http://ifomis.org 2

Ontologie (Phil.)Die Lehre vom Sein

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Google hits Jan. 2004

• ontology + Heidegger 58K• ontology + Aristotle 77K• ontology + philosophy 327K• ontology + engineering 335K• ontology + software 468K• ontology + database 594K• ontology + information systems 702K

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Google hits (in Millionen) 6.7.06

• ontology 51.4

• ontology + philosophy 2.7

• ontology + information science 6.6

• ontology + database 9.8

Google hits (in Millionen) 3.4.07

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Q: Warum ‘Ontologie’ heute? A: Das Babelturmproblem der Informationssysteme

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‘Ontologie’ (Tech.)

= die Konstruktion künstlicher Taxonomien als Softwareartefakte, die durch ‘Tagging’ u.a. das Suchen und Finden von Information unterstützen sollen

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Ontology (science) in der Biomedizin

wir akkumulieren gigantische Mengen von Daten

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Ontology in der Biomedizin

how do we know what data we have ?

how do I know what data you have ?

how do we know what data we don’t have ?

how do we make different sorts of data combinable ?

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where in the cell ?

what kind of process ?

wir brauchen semantischeAnnotation dieser Daten

what kind of biological goal ?


Experten durchforsten die wissenschaftliche Literatur, um Einträge in biochemischen Datenbanken mit GO-Termini zu verbinden

diese Verbindungen werden digital katalogisiert

die verschiedenen Datenbanken werden dann durch die GO-Termini automatisch integriert

und zwar in einer Weise, die die biochemischen Daten auch für Menschen zugänglich macht

GO Methodologie der Annotation


this leads to improvements and extensions of the ontology

GO + Annotationen stellen eine wachsende algorithmisch interpretierbare Landkarte der biologischen Wirklichkeit dar

Sie spielen auch für Menschen eine wichtige integrierende Rolle


Ontologie als Begleitung z.B. der Rechtsinformationssysteme

Anwendungen in:

Standardisierung (z.B. des EU-Rechts)

Lernsystemen im komparativen Recht

Festlegung gemeinsamen Grundwissens

automatischem Schließen

Statistik

Integration von Daten



Was ist ein Dokument?


Dokument als Gegenstand der Informatik

Bob Glushko (Document Engineering): “A document is a purposeful and self-contained collection of information.”

on-line business transactions are ‘internet information exchanges’

but there is more than information here


OED

1., 2. Teaching, lesson learned (cf. doctor, docile, docent)

3. That which serves to show, point out, or prove something; evidence, proof.

4. Something written, inscribed, etc., which furnishes evidence or information upon any subject, as a manuscript, title-deed, tombstone, coin, picture, etc.


eine bessere Definition

x ist ein Document=def

x ist eine dauerhafte Urkunde, die einen deontisch oder institutionell relevanten Akt

darstellt oder ausdrückt

x ist eine dauerhafte Urkunde, die eine wesentliche Rolle in einem deontisch oder

institutionell relevanten Akt spielt


Beispiele von Dokumenten in diesem deontischen Sinn

• identification documents

• commercial documents

• legal documents

Thus: not novels, recipes, diaries ...


Some examples Made of paper Not made of paper

novel

textbook

newspaper

recipe

map

business card

license

degree certificate

deed

contract

testament

bill

consent form

advertising hoarding

gravestone

film credits

signage on buildings

street name

clay tablet record-ing outcome of litigation

e-document

credit card

car license plate

traffic sign


Scope of document ontology

• the sorts of things we can do with documents

• the powers of documents

• the social interactions in which documents play an essential role

• the enduring institutional systems to which documents belong


Basic distinctions among documents

–document template (Vorlage) vs. filled-in document

–document vs. piece of paper

–authentic document vs. copy, forgery



Provenienz• Gemälde vs. Gedicht• Lohnsteuerformblatt vs. Lohnsteuerausweis• Fingerabdruck vs. Analyse eines Fingerabdrucks

historische vs. syntaktische Identität

• Unterschrift• Lichtbild• Siegel• Stempel



Allographic = identity is syntacticAutographic = identity is historical

• A signature is autographic

• A fingerprint left at the scene of the crime is autographic

• A fingerprint taken for identification purposes is allographic

Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art


What happens when you sign your passport?

• you initiate the validity of the passport

• you attest to the truth of the assertions it contains (historical identity)

• you provide a sample pattern for comparison (syntactic identity)

Three document acts for the price of one


Passport acts

• I use my passport to prove my identity

• You use my passport to check my identity

• He renews my passport

• They confiscate my passport


You use my passport to check my identity

knowledge by acquaintance

knowledge by description

knowledge by comparison


knowledge by complementation


Two types of entities

• Discovered entities (molecules, cells, organisms)

• Created entities (corporations, ministries, obligations)


Two types of ontology

• natural-science ontology (bio-ontologies)

• administrative ontology (e-commerce ontologies, legal ontologies, banking ontologies)


Documents belong to the realm of administrative entities

entities such as organizations, rules, prices, debts, standardized transactions ..., which we ourselves create

But what does ‘create’ mean ?


Speech Act Theory

• 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 through utterances (declarations) (“I name this ship ...”)


The Searle thesis:

the performance of speech acts brings into being claims and obligations and deontic

powers


appointings, marryings, promisingschange the world... provided certain background conditions are satisfied:

valid formulation

legitimate authority

acceptance by addressees

We perform a speech act ... the world changes, instantaneously


provided certain background conditions are satisfied

documents create and sustain permanent re-usable deontic powers,

which serve coordination of actions into the future


but speech acts are evanescent entities: they are events, which exist only in their

executions

• what is the physical basis for the temporally extended existence of its products and for their enduring power to serve coordination?


Answer

In small societies: the memories of those involved

In large societies: documents


Differences between document acts and speech acts

• documents endure through time, and so can create traceable liability (rückverfolgbare Haftbarkeit)

• documents can be attached together, creating new complexes whose structure mirrors relations among the human beings involved (of husband to wife, debtor to creditor)



Differences between document acts and speech acts

• speech acts are normally self-validating (they wear their provenance on their face)

• documents need technological devices (official stamps, special watermarks, signatures, countersignatures, seals, ...)

• documents foster proxy execution of social acts (representation, Vertretung)

• documents can be registered• documents can be amended



The Searle thesis

the performance of speech acts brings into being claims and obligations and deontic

powers


The de Soto thesisdocuments and document systems create the institutional orders of modern societies

Freiheit für das Kapital! Warum der Kapitalismus nicht weltweit funktioniert,

Rowohlt 2002


The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Succeeds in the West

and Fails Everywhere Else

Freiheit für das Kapital! Warum der Kapitalismus nicht weltweit funktioniert,

Rowohlt 2002


The Mystery of Capital

= documentation


The creative power of documents

stock and share certificates create capital

title creates property examination documents create PhDs

marriage licenses create bonds of matrimony (Heiratsurkunde schafft Ehebund)

bankruptcy certificates create bankrupts(Insolvenznachweis schafft Bankrotteur)

statutes of incorporation create business (Statuten der Gesellschaftsgründung schaffen Unternehmen)

charters create universities, cities, guilds(Verfassung schafft eine Stadt ...)


The creative power of documents

insurance certificates

treaties

patents

licenses

membership cards

divorce decrees


Identity documents


Identity documents

• create identity (and thereby create the possibility of identity theft)

• what is the ontology of identity?


The creative power of documentsdocuments create authorities(physicians’ license creates physician)

authorities create documents(physicians creates sick notes)

documents issued by an authority within the framework of a valid legal institution

vs. documents issued by an authority extralegally on its own behalf (cf. US Declaration of Independence)


Organizational chart

= a map of the organization and of its flows of authority

(document creates a system of positional roles)


What kinds of documents have creative power in social reality?

not novels – which exist in many identical copies (tokens of the same type)

not watercolors in a gallery – which do not contain time-sensitive information


What can we do with a document? [DOCUMENT ACTS]

Sign it

Stamp it

Copy it

Witness it

Fill it in

Revise it

Register it

Archive it

Realize (interrupt, abort ...) the actions mandated by it

Deliver it (de facto, de jure)

Declare it active/inactive

Display it (price list)

Attest to its validity

Nullify it

Destroy it


Who can engage in document acts?[DOCUMENT ACTORS]

creator of document / of document-template (legislator, drafter ...)

signer / attestor

filler-in of template

checker (solicitor, notary, administrative official)

recipient

addressee (executor of an estate)

beneficiary (will ...)

registrar, archivist


Registration

storing of documents in a way which makes them – permanently accessible (checkable, verifiable)– amendable (e.g. where property is used as

collateral for loans)– combinable (attachment): social relations are

created via cross-referenced and cross-attached documents

– more easily authenticated


What can we do with an ontology of documents?

• what categories of documents?

• what categories of document acts?’

• what categories of provenience?

• what kinds of forgery and what kinds of safeguards?

• can we reproduce all of these computationally?


Redundancy• Safety procedures for mission-critical technology

involve multiple layers of redundancy to ensure against catastrophe.

• a photograph alone is not sufficient to establish your identity: it must appear in the right place in the right sort of document that has been marked in the right sort of way by signatures, counter-signatures, stamps, ID numbers

• these elements serve to anchor the document to the reality beyond and to the history of its production


Redundancy


fingerprint

official stamps and seals

photograph

watermarks

bar code

numeric IDs allowing cross-referencing to documents

Technologies of identification


Problems

• And how do we recreate these features in the realm of e-documents?

• How do we distinguish author from proxy in the realm of e-documents?

• How do we anchor e-documents to objects and processes in physical reality (e.g. to human beings)?


The ontology of signatures

signed/not signedsigned

incorrectlyfraudulentlyand stampedand countersigned (Gegenzeichnungen)by a proxy (Stellvertreter)with a single/with a plurality of signatories


The ontology of names

• a baptism ceremony creates a new sort of cultural object called a name

• names, too, belong to the domain of administrative (= created) entities

• 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)


How do documents relate to the underlying physical medium

• A credit card receipt is autographic

• A credit card is allographic

• But the credit card as physical carrier is dispensable:– What is important are the credit card numbers


The ontology of (credit card) numbers

• These numbers are not mathematical (not informational) entities – they are ‘thick’ (historical) numbers, special sorts of cultural artefacts– they are information objects with provenance:

abstract keys fitting into a globally distributed lock


Standardized documents

Template, followed by act of filling in

documents filled in completely/partiallycorrectly/incorrectlyvalidly/invalidlyby proxy ...


Standardized documents

• allow networking

• across time (documents can accumulate through attachment - Anhänge)

• across space (different groups can orientate themselves around the same document forms)

• can encapsulate the memory and experience of an entire profession


Good documents vs. bad documents

Good documents must be well-designed1. they must map the corresponding reality in a

perspicuous way – cf. maps as document2. 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)


Much valuable work on ‘documents’ in the context of XML, etc., standardization

e.g. Bob Glushko: “A document is a purposeful and self-contained collection of information.”

• focuses on information content, not on the physical container

• sees business collaborations – e.g. between on-line customer credit card authorization service when the latter verifies and charges the customer’s account – as ‘Internet information exchanges’

• but there is more than information here


Similarities between speech acts and document acts

• Memory and learning play a role in each

• We have to be trained to use and trust documents (de Soto in Peru)

• Documentary habits are acquired in small face-to-face societies


from the Shiprock Navajo fair

New Mexico, September 30-October 1, 2005


Standardized documents embody social memory (the technology of filling in)


The virtues of standardized documents

• one can more easily check that one has filled in the boxes

— correctly (from a syntactical point of view)— truthfully— by the right person— with the right authority

• the form itself can guarantee that it occupies its proper place in a network of forms

• facilitates checking and enforceability, and thus contributes to reliability and simplification of transactions


Document Systems

• the system of identity documents (of birth and death certificates and public records offices, of visas, passports, consulates and border posts);

• the system of legal documents (of codes of law, summonses, police reports, court proceedings)

• the system of credentialing documents (of degree certificates, examinations, class lists, charters of credentialing organizations)


as document systems evolve

• human beings acquire associated documentary skills in widening circles

• they thereby acquire the capacity to concretize the relevant kinds of ‘we’ intentionality, to occupy the relevant kinds of positional roles within larger corporate wholes

• through documents the actions of countless individuals become coordinated over space and time


documentshelped to create modern

civilization

they help us to move from small to large societies


Hernando de SotoInstitute for Liberty and Democracy, Lima, Peru

Bill Clinton: “The most promising anti-poverty initiative in the world”


common beliefs about the African village

• no individual property rights• regime of ‘community property’• land cannot be bought and sold, because it is

sacred …• no legal and economic institutions• law is confined to what is legislated (= big-city

top-down, colonial law)


using ontology (science) to answer the question:

what really exists in the African village ?


Ontologie (science) als wissenschaftliche Begleitung der Rechtsinformationssysteme

• wissenschafliche Geschichte der Institutionen des Rechts

• wann sind welche Institutionen zuerst entstanden?– Datierung von Dokumenten

– Unterschriften

– Dokumentvorlagen

– Ankreuzfelder


The history of document acts• in medieval England a change in the meaning of ‘to

record’ from to bear oral witness to to produce a document

• origin of practices such as dating and signing of documents, the making of financial accounts, the safekeeping of (master copies of) documents in central registries

• peasants’ charters giving smallholders title to their land

• institutions formerly the preserve of royal chanceries progressively disseminated among the laity

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