Just as ontology developed over the centuries as part of philosophy, so in recent years ontology has become intertwined with the development of the information sciences. Researchers in such areas as artificial intelligence, formal and computational linguistics, biomedical informatics, conceptual modeling, knowledge engineering and information retrieval have come to realize that a solid foundation for their research calls for serious work in ontology, understood as a general theory of the types of entities and relations that make up their respective domains of inquiry. In all these areas, attention has started to focus on the content of information rather than on just the formats and languages in terms of which information is represented. The clearest example of this development is provided by the many initiatives growing up around the project of the Semantic Web. And as the need for integrating research in these different fields arises, so does the realization that strong principles for building well-founded ontologies might provide significant advantages over ad hoc, case-based solutions. The tools of Formal Ontology address precisely these needs, but a real effort is required in order to apply such philosophical tools to the domain of Information Systems. Reciprocally, research in the information science raises specific ontological questions which call for further philosophical investigations.

The purpose of FOIS is to provide a forum for genuine interdisciplinary exchange in the spirit of a unified ontological analysis effort. Although the primary focus of the conference is on theoretical issues, methodological proposals as well as papers dealing with concrete applications from a well-founded theoretical perspective are welcome. For further informations, please contact: Tiziana Andina and Carola Barbero

Surviving Through Change

A Philosophical Workshop

Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, Università degli Studi di Bergamo and
CTAO – Centre for Theoretical and Applied Ontology
Piazza S. Agostino, 1
Bergamo
Sala Conferenze
July 6, 2004
Morning
9,30-10,15 Dean Zimmermann (Rutgers University)
Persistence, Properties and the Present
10,15-10.35 Elisa Paganini (University of Milan)
Comments on Zimmermann’s Paper
10.35-11.05 General Discussion
11.05-11.30 Coffee Break
11.30-12.15 Achille Varzi (Columbia University)
Change, Temporal Parts and the Argument from Vagueness
12.15-12.35 Fabrice Correia (University of Barcelona)
Comments on Varzi’s Paper
12.35-13.05 General Discussion
 

Afternoon
14,45-15,30 Christopher Hughes (King’s College, University of London)
More Fuss about Formulation: Sider (and Me) on Three- Dimensionalism and Four-Dimensionalism

15,30-15.50 Massimiliano Carrara (University of Padua)

16.45-17.30 Massimo Mugnai (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa)

17.30-17.50 Luca Morena (University of Bologna)