Identity, Unity, and Individuality: Towards a Formal Toolkit for Ontological Analysis

We introduce here the notions of identity and unity as they have been discussed in Philosophy, and then provide additional clarifications needed to use these notions as fundamental tools in a methodology for ontology-driven conceptual analysis. We show how identity and unity complement each other under a general notion of individuality, and conclude with an example of how these tools can be used in analysis to help check the ontological consistency of taxonomies.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2000
• Where: ECAI
• Authors: Nicola Guarino, Christopher A. Welty
• Keywords: Additional Clarifications, Artificial Intelligence, ECAI 2000, Ontology-driven Conceptual Analysis, Unity Complement