Event Timeslots (1)
Monday
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Natural languages (like English and German) assume many different kinds of objects. For example, to interpret the sentence Every boy admires Mary, we need to assume individuals (i.e. boys, Mary), properties (being a boy), relations (admire), etc.. This course investigates the ontological systems that arise from such assumptions. The study of such systems has recently gained momentum in the discipline of 'natural language ontology', which lies at the interface of metaphysics, philosophy of language, and philosophy of science.
The first half of the course will survey different strategies for identifying a language's ontological commitments. These strategies reveal a plethora (or 'zoo') of ontological categories that includes -- next to individuals, properties, and relations -- e.g. events, degrees, and kinds. The second half of the course will investigate how this 'zoo' can be reduced to a smaller set of categories, and will explain why such reduction is desirable. It will compare the ontological commitments of different reductions and will identify relations between different reduced ontologies. In this way, students will gain insight into the requirements on minimal ontologies and the challenges for ontology engineering.