Bell’s Theorem from 1964 and the (Strong) Free Will Theorem of Conway and Kochen from 2009 both exclude deterministic hidden variable theories (or, in modern parlance, ‘ontological models’) that are compatible with some small fragment of quantum mechanics, admit ‘free’ settings of the archetypal Alice&Bob experiment, and satisfy a locality condition called Parameter Independence. We clarify the...

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In this paper we describe an ontological model of pragmatic knowledge using an example from the domain of navigation that is based on the Descriptive Ontology for Linguistic and Cognitive Engineering and employs a specific ontological module called Descriptions & Situations. This framework establishes so-called ontological patterns. We employ such a pattern for modeling schematic knowledge of t...

The ontological and epistemological positions adopted by information systems design methods are incommensurable when pushed to their extremes. Information systems research has therefore tended to focus on the similarities between different positions, usually in search of a single, unifying position. However, by focusing on the similarities, the clarity of argument provided by any one philosophi...

A shift from a metaphysical framework of substance to one of process enables an integrated account of the emergence of normative phenomena. I show how substance assumptions block genuine ontological emergence, especially the emergence of normativity, and how a process framework permits a thermodynamic-based account of normative emergence. The focus is on two foundational forms of normativity, t...

A common theme in the contemporary medical model of psychiatry is that pathophysiological processes are centrally involved in the explanation, evaluation, and treatment of mental illnesses. Implied in this perspective is that clinical descriptors of these pathophysiological processes are sufficient to distinguish underlying etiologies. Psychiatric classification requires differentiation between...

Formalizing the ontological commitment of a logical language means offering a way to specify the intended meaning of its vocabulary by constraining the set of its models, giving explicit information about the intended nature of the modelling primitives and their a priori relationships. We present here a formal definition of ontological commitment which aims to capture the very basic ontological...

At the start of an empirical study into the patient care process (PCP) a number of ontological, epistemological and methodological challenges were identified. The PCP appeared to be an “objective”, manageable, reality which is carried out by individuals with their own “subjective” understanding of the process, its purposes, organisational constraints and their roles. The dual perception of the ...

The task of information extraction can be seen as a problem of semantic matching between a user-defined template and a piece of information written in natural language. To this purpose, the ontological assumptions of the template need to be suitably specified, and compared with the ontological implications of the text. So-called “ontologies”, consisting of theories of various kinds expressing t...