Information Artifact Ontology and Aboutness

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Barry Smith

Information Artifact Ontology and Aboutness

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Shimon Edelman’s Riddle of Representation

two humans, a monkey, and a robotare looking at a piece of cheese;

what is common to the representational processes in their visual systems?

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Answer:

The cheese, of course

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The real cheese

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the arrow of intentionality

± simple

mental process content (putative) target

presenting actcontent of presentation

“apple”object of presentation

judging act

judgment-content

“the apple over there is ripe”

state of affairsfact

evaluating actemotional act

appraisal…

“it is good that the apple over there is ripe”

?

mental process content target

you see an apple “apple” an apple

• you are in physical contact with target ― cf. Russell’s knowledge by acquaintance; J. J. Gibson’s ecological theory of perception

± relational intentionality


presenting actsensory content object of presentation

object exists

object does not exist

objectpresent

objectabsent

± perceptually filled

ordinary perception


presenting actsensory content object of presentation

object exists


objectpresent

objectabsent

perceptually filled does not imply veridical

hallucination


presenting act content of presentation

“apple” + sensation originating causally at

target

object of presentation

object exists


objectpresent

objectabsent

the evolutionarily most basic case

ordinary perception



“apple” + sensation originating causally at

target


object exists


objectpresent

objectabsent

relational implies veridical

ordinary perception




object exists


objectpresent

objectabsent

veridical does not imply relational

veridical thinking about



“apple”


object existsobject present

objectabsent

± content match

content match

“apple”

content match

“food”



“apple”


object existsobject present

objectabsent

veridical does not imply content match

content mismatch

“poison”

content mismatch

“apple”

content here not just a matter of language

still posson

mental process content target

you see an apple “apple” an apple

± linguistically mediated

A cat can see a kingA cat can see a mass spectrometer

mental process content there is no target


“apple”underlying false belief

non-veridical intentionality is an untidy collection of non-canonical cases

the presenting act is dependent on an underlying belief or attitude of one or other deviant types



“apple”object

presentobjectabsent

non-veridical intentionality type 1. ontological error

hallucination, deception, …the presenting act is dependent on a false underlying belief



“apple”object

presentobjectabsent

non-veridical intentionality type 2. fiction

thinking-about-Macbeth = the presenting act is not dependent on an underlying false belief

“The Substitution Theory of Art”, Grazer Philosophische Studien, 25/26 (1986)

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the primacy of language (Sellars …)mental experiences are about objects because words have

meaning

word / meaning

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the primacy of the intentional (Brentano, Husserl, …): linguistic expressions have meanings because there are (‘animating’) mental

experiences which have aboutness

dimension of content / belief prior to dimension of language

language comes later than mental aboutness

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How annotate this

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or this?

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or this?

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Mental Functioning Ontology (Draft)

Mental Functioning Ontology (Draft)

with thanks to Janna Hastings and Kevin Mulligan Swiss Center for Affective Sciences)

Basic Formal Ontology

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BFO:Entity

BFO:Continuant BFO:Occurrent

BFO:ProcessBFO:Independent Continuant

BFO

BFO:Dependent Continuant

BFO:Disposition

phismith

[FIRST M*L SLIDE]

Basic Formal Ontology and Mental Functioning Ontology (MFO)

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BFO:Entity


BFO:Process

Organism

BFO:Independent Continuant

BFOMFO


Behaviour inducing state

Mental Functioning Related Anatomical

Structure

Cognitive Representation

BFO:Quality

Affective Representation

Mental Process

Bodily ProcessBFO:Disposition

Functions vs. FunctioningsContinuants vs. Occurrents

3535

BFO:Entity


BFO:Process

Organism


BFOMFO


Mental Function


BFO:QualityMental Process


Mental Functioning

Aboutness (‘Intentionality’)

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BFO:Entity


BFO:Process

Organism


BFOMFO


Mental Function


BFO:QualityMental Process


Mental Functioning

does all mental functioning involve cognitive representation (aboutness)?

what is aboutness?

Extending the MFO• to linguistic competence and performance

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Linguistic Functioning Ontology (1. Speech and hearing)

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BFO:Entity



BFOMFO




BFO:Quality

Speech-mediated cognitive

representation

Speech process


Linguistic competence

Speech competence of a population

= a [spoken] languageSpeech competence of

an individual

Hearing (registering)

process

Linguistic Functioning Ontology (2. Reading and writing)

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BFO:Entity



BFOMFO




BFO:Quality

Written-language-mediated cognitive

representation

Writing process



Written linguistic competence of a

population = a [written] language

Written linguistic competence of an

individual

Reading (registering)

process

Linguistic Functioning Ontology (the whole thing)

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BFO:Entity



BFOMFO




BFO:Quality

Language-mediated cognitive

representation

Writing



Linguistic competence of a population

= a language Linguistic competence of an individual

Reading

Speaking



“apple”object

presentobjectabsent

non-veridical intentionality type 3. planning

Christmas present lists



“apple”object

presentobjectabsent

non-veridical intentionality type 4. daydreaming

Mental Functioning Ontology (MF)

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braininendocrine

gland

Aboutness

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brain retina

ENVI

RON

MEN

T

mental act about a real-world object

non-relational(~ linguistic)

relational(~ perception)

content match

content mismatch

content match

content mismatch

veridical non-veridical46




object exists


targetpresent

targetabsent

Veridical intentionality

ordinary perceptionevolutionarily most basic case

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BFO:Entity



BFOMFO




BFO:Quality

Language-mediated cognitive

representation

Writing



Linguistic competence of a population

= a language Linguistic competence of an individual

Reading

Speaking

what is a language? something analogous to a biological

species (a population of competences)

Documents

Information Artifact Ontology and Aboutness