Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective

Special Topics: Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (PHI 598). Fall 2024

Registration number:23030

Instructor: Barry Smith

Office hours: By appointment via email to [1]

The Course

This course is a 1 credit-hour asynchronous online course for masters-level students and advanced undergraduates. No background in philosophy or ontology is presupposed.

provides an introduction to central themes in the history of philosophy viewed from an ontological perspective. The course is designed to be of interest to both philosophers and those with a background in computer and information science. Topics treated will include:

- brief history of ontology from Aristotle to the Human Genome Project.

- the meaning of life

- the ontology of social reality

- ontology leaving the mother ship of philosophy

- why computer science needs philosophy

- the Semantic Web

- towards a standard top-level ontology

- ontology and the Federal Government Data Integration Initiative (anno 2009)

Course content, plus one additional closing lecture, can be found here. Grading for the course will take the following form. For each of the 8 lectures the student is required to prepare a single question relating to the content of that lecture. The question should be such that an answer to the question is not provided in the lecture. It should also be of general interest to the other students taking the course. After digesting the content of all lectures the student should send a list of all 8 questions to phismith@buffalo.edu with the subject heading "8 Questions". After receiving emails of this form from all students enrolled in the class, and not later than November 15, a zoom meeting will be organized at which Dr Smith will attempt to provide answers to a subset of these questions. Participation in this zoom meeting is required by all class participants. Grade will be calculated on the basis of:

1. quality of questions, measured in terms of interestingness, clarity, and relevance to the course

2. completeness of the list of questions received

For further information please contact Dr Smith at phismith@buffalo.edu

Recommended reading

Marjorie Grene, A Portrait of Aristotle

R. Arp, B. Smith, A. D. Spear, Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology

John R. Searle, Making the Social World

E. J. Lowe, The Four Category Ontology

Roman Ingarden, The Literary Work of Art. An Investigation on the Borderlines of Ontology, Logic, and Theory of Language