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206Processes as variable embodimentsSynthese 203 (4): 1-27. 2024.In a number of papers, Kit Fine introduced a theory of embodiment which distinguishes between rigid and variable embodiments, and has been successfully applied to clarify the ontological nature of entities whose parts may or may not vary in time. In particular, he has applied this theory to describe a process such as the erosion of a cliff, which would be a variable embodiment whose manifestations are the different states of erosion of the cliff. We find this theory very powerful, and especially…Read more
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845DOLCE: A descriptive ontology for linguistic and cognitive engineering1Applied ontology 17 (1): 45-69. 2022.dolce, the first top-level ontology to be axiomatized, has remained stable for twenty years and today is broadly used in a variety of domains. dolce is inspired by cognitive and linguistic considerations and aims to model a commonsense view of reality, like the one human beings exploit in everyday life in areas as diverse as socio-technical systems, manufacturing, financial transactions and cultural heritage. dolce clearly lists the ontological choices it is based upon, relies on philosophical p…Read more
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444Events, their names, and their synchronic structureApplied ontology 17 (2): 249-283. 2022.We present in this paper a novel ontological theory of events whose central tenet is the Aristotelian distinction between the object that changes and the actual subject of change, which is what we call an individual quality. While in the Kimian tradition events are individuated by a triple ⟨ o, P, t ⟩, where o is an object, P a property, and t an interval of time, for us the simplest events are qualitative changes, individuated by a triple ⟨ o, q, t ⟩, where q is an individual quality inhering i…Read more
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311An Ontological Account of the Action Theory of Economic ExchangesIn Daniele Porello, Giancarlo Guizzardi, Tiago Prince Sales, Glenda C. M. Amaral & Nicola Guarino (eds.), Proceedings of 14th International Workshop on Value Modelling and Business Ontologies, Brussels, Belgium, January 16-17, 2020. pp. 157-169. 2020.In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in thedevelopment of ontologically well-founded conceptual models for Information Systems in areas such as Service Management, Accounting Information Systems and Financial Reporting. Economic exchanges are central phenomena in these areas. For this reason, they occupy a prominent position in modelling frameworks such as the REA (Resource-EventAction) ISO Standard as well as the FIBO (Financial Industry BusinessOntology). In this paper, we be…Read more
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281On weak truthmakingIn Adrien Barton, Selja Seppälä & Daniele Porello (eds.), Proceedings of the Joint Ontology Workshops 2019, Ceur Workshop Proceedings. 2019.Informally speaking, a truthmaker is something in the world in virtue of which the sentences of a language can be made true. This fundamental philosophical notion plays a central role in applied ontology. In particular, a recent nonorthodox formulation of this notion proposed by the philosopher Josh Parsons, which we labelled weak truthamking, has been shown to be extremely useful in addressing a number of classical problems in the area of Conceptual Modeling. In this paper, after revisiti…Read more
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925Endurant Types in Ontology-Driven Conceptual Modeling: Towards OntoUML 2.0In J. C. Trujillo, K. C. Davis, X. Du, Z. Li, T. W. Ling, G. Li & M. L. Lee (eds.), Conceptual Modeling - 37th International Conference, {ER} 2018, Xi'an, China, October 22-25, 2018, Proceedings, Springer. pp. 136--150. 2018.For over a decade now, a community of researchers has contributed to the development of the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) - aimed at providing foundations for all major conceptual modeling constructs. This ontology has led to the development of an Ontology-Driven Conceptual Modeling language dubbed OntoUML, reflecting the ontological micro-theories comprising UFO. Over the years, UFO and OntoUML have been successfully employed in a number of academic, industrial and governmental settings t…Read more
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Proceedings of the ECAI-02 Workshop on Ontologies and Semantic Interoperability Lyon, July 22, 2002. (edited book)CEUR Workshop Proceedings. 2002.
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375Ontological Foundations of CompetitionIn Stefano Borgo, Pascal Hitzler & Oliver Kutz (eds.), Formal Ontology in Information Systems: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference (FOIS 2018), Ios Press. pp. 96-112. 2018.It is widely recognized that accurately identifying and classifying competitors is a challenge for many companies and entrepreneurs. Nonetheless, it is a paramount activity which provide valuable insights that affect a wide range of strategic decisions. One of the main challenges in competitor identification lies in the complex nature of the competitive relationships that arise in business envi- ronments. These have been extensively investigate over the years, which lead to a plethora of competi…Read more
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410Reification and Truthmaking PatternsIn J. Trujillo (ed.), Proceedings of 37th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, ER 2018, Xi'an, China, October 22-25, 2018, Springer. pp. 151-165. 2018.Reification is a standard technique in conceptual modeling, which consists of including in the domain of discourse entities that may otherwise be hidden or implicit. However, deciding what should be rei- fied is not always easy. Recent work on formal ontology offers us a simple answer: put in the domain of discourse those entities that are responsible for the (alleged) truth of our propositions. These are called truthmakers. Re-visiting previous work, we propose in this paper a systematic analys…Read more
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606BFO and DOLCE: So Far, So Close…Cosmos + Taxis 4 (4): 10-18. 2017.A survey of the similarities and differences between BFO and DOLCE, and of the mutual interactions between Nicola Guarino and Barry Smith
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711We propose a novel ontological analysis of relations and relationships based on a re-visitation of a classic problem in the practice of knowledge repre- sentation and conceptual modeling, namely relationship reification. Our idea is that a relation holds in virtue of a relationship's existence. Relationships are therefore truthmakers of relations. In this paper we present a general theory or reification and truthmaking, and discuss the interplay between events and rela- tionships, suggesting tha…Read more
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Parts and Wholes: Conceptual Part-Whole Relations and Formal Mereology, 11th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Amsterdam, 8 August 1994, Amsterdam: (edited book)European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence. 1994.
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2784.1. Fondamenti ontologici per una scienza dei serviziRivista di Estetica 49 227-246. 2012.Nonostante la pervasività della nozione di servizio e le recenti proposte per una Scienza dei Servizi unificata, esistono ancora parecchie inconsistenze tra le varie definizioni di servizio in uso nelle diverse discipline (e spesso anche all'interno della stessa disciplina). In particolare, a dispetto del fatto che l'obiettivo generale di questa scienza dovrebbe essere di permettere a persone e calcolatori di interagire agevolmente con i servizi nella vita di tutti i giorni, molti approcci alla …Read more
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304Ontology as a branch of philosophy is the science of what is, of the kinds and structures of objects, properties, events, processes and relations in every area of reality. ‘Ontology’ is often used by philosophers as a synonym for ‘metaphysics’ (literally: ‘what comes after the Physics’), a term which was used by early students of Aristotle to refer to what Aristotle himself called ‘first philosophy’. The term ‘ontology’ (or ontologia) was itself coined in 1613, independently, by two philosophers…Read more
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444Creating the ontologists of the futureApplied ontology 6 (1): 91-98. 2011.The goal of the 2010 Ontology Summit was to address the current shortage of persons with ontology expertise by developing a strategy for the education of ontologists. To achieve this goal we studied how ontologists are currently trained, the requirements identified by organizations that hire ontologists, and developments that might impact the training of ontologists in the future. We developed recommendations for the body of knowledge that should be taught and the skills that should be developed …Read more
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35Ontology for Big Systems: The Ontology Summit 2012 CommuniquéApplied ontology 7 (3): 357-371. 2012.The Ontology Summit 2012 explored the current and potential uses of ontology, its methods and paradigms, in big systems and big data: How ontology can be used to design, develop, and operate such systems. The systems addressed were not just software systems, although software systems are typically core and necessary components, but more complex systems that include multiple kinds and levels of human and community interaction with physical-software systems, systems of systems, and the socio-techn…Read more
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90Ten years of Applied OntologyApplied ontology 10 (3-4): 169-170. 2015.This is a short editorial to introduce the double issue of Applied Ontology that celebrates the journal's tenth anniversary. At a time when information technology of all kinds depends on the use of explicit ontologies, our journal addresses the modeling issues that underlie the next generation of computational systems. As the editors of Applied Ontology, we are excited by how far we have come in the past decade and by the opportunities that await our research community.
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1Proceedings of the International Workshop on Formal Ontology in Conceptual Analysis and Knowledge RepresentationItalian National Research Council. 1993.
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520Applied ontology: Focusing on contentApplied ontology 1 (1): 1-5. 2005.In a world that is overflowing with journals and other outlets for scientific publication, the appearance of any new periodical requires some justification. There are already more journals than we can read and more conferences than we can attend. In the case of applied Ontology, we believe that the creation of anew journal not only is completely justifiable, it is downright exciting. For too long, workers in computer science have assumed that content comes for free. “Theory” in computer science…Read more
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73Applied ontology: The next decade beginsApplied ontology 10 (1): 1-4. 2015.In 2005, IOS Press published the first issue of applied Ontology. At the time, we argued that, at the core of the journal, there was “a desire to understand the nature of reality and how people construe their world”. We declared that ontology was both “fundamental to human thought” and “to translating our thoughts into computational artifacts” (Guarino & Musen,2005). With an editorial board of distinguished scholars representing the fields of computer science, informatics, information science, p…Read more
Nicola Guarino
Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche (CNR)
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Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche (CNR)ISTC-CNR Laboratory for Applied OntologyRetired faculty
Areas of Specialization
Properties |
Relations |
Events |
Truthmakers |
Tropes |
Areas of Interest
13 more