Title: The Ontology and Epistemology of Categories.

时间：2012年3月27日下午1：00-2：30

地点：北师大教8楼408室

主讲人：Prof. Dr. Heinrich Herre

主持人：吴岩

Abstract:

 Categories are the means to structure the world, to detect orders in reality, to build knowledge systems, to write novels, and in general, to establish a semantic  basis for language.  Without categories we cannot  formulate knowledge, without categories there are no theories, no literary texts, no applications of science to the world.  The aim of this lecture is a thorough analysis  of the notion of a category in the framework of the top level ontology GFO (General Formal Ontology). In the first part we set the general framework for our investigation. We explicate the basic distinctions between categories and individuals. We expound and discuss the basic types of categories related to different philosophical approaches, in particular to  platonism, to internal universals, to nominalism, and to conceptualism. We distinguish among categories platonic ideas, immanent universals, symbols, and concepts. Symbols and concepts are the most basic constituants of any form of texts (scientific texts, literary texts), and we investigate and discuss several approaches to the representation and structure of concepts. This part contains mainly the basic features of the ontology of categories as it is adopted by GFO. Results from cognitive are additionally used.

 讲演者简介： 

Name: Prof. Dr.  Heinrich Herre，Universitity Leipzig, Institute for Medical Informatics Statistics, and  Epidemiology，Medizinische Fakultät

1972            Dr. rer. nat. (PhD degree), Humboldt-University, Berlin

                    (Specialization: Math. Logic and Foundations of Mathematics)

1977            Dr. sc. nat. (Habilitation degree) at Humboldt-University, Berlin

1976-1989  Principal researcher on applications of mathematical logic

                     in computer science and artificial intelligence,

                    Academy of Science in Berlin  (GDR)                

since August 1993:

                    University Professor for Theoretical Computer Science

                    Chair: Formal Concepts

                    Institute of Informatics, University of Leipzig

since April 2007:

                    Head of the Research Department

                   Ontologies in Medicine and Life Sciences (Onto-Med)

 Research Area:

Ontologies and knowledge-Based Systems

Institute for Medical Informatics,

Statistics and Epidemiology

Medical Faculty, University of Leipzig

Research Interests:

Ontologies (since 2001)

Nonmonotonic Reasoning

Semantics of logic programs

Metatheory of formalized theories

Theory of Models/Model Theory