Understanding top-level ontological distinctions

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to present a systematic methodology for selecting general ontological categories to be used for multiple practical purposes. After a brief overview of our basic assumptions concerning the way a useful toplevel ontology should be linked to language and cognition, we present a set of formal (i.e., domain-neutral) primitive relations that we believe play a foundational role. On the basis of these relations we define a few formal properties, which combined together help to understand and clarify the nature of many common ontological distinctions. 1