Processes, events and temporal and causal couplings

Processes, events and temporal and causal couplings

Gilles Kassel 

Laboratoire MIS, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, 33 rue Saint Leu, 80039 Amiens Cedex 1, France

Corresponding Author Email: 
gilles.kassel@u-picardie.fr
Page: 
649-679
|
DOI: 
https://doi.org/10.3166/RIA.31.649-679
Received: 
| |
Accepted: 
| | Citation

OPEN ACCESS

Abstract: 

The ontology of entities which ‘occur’ - processes, events and states - has experienced these last twenty years important developments. Several authors renewed the ontology of processes, bringing them closer to objects in their way to endure in time in their entirety and thus making them dynamic continuants. At the same time, this gesture renews questions about the nature of events. In this article, we propose an ontology of events assimilating them to objects of thought, i.e. locating them outside the physical world. Our conception of events is that they are not in the causal-energy sphere of the physical world, but that they are cognitive constructions whose main function for subjects is to report on the history of the physical world. In the paper, we present two contributions of this ontology. A first contribution is a new characterization of the notion of ‘occurrence’ of events, which distinguishes it from their ‘existence’ to liken it to a realization in the physical world. A second contribution is to allow to account for temporal and causal couplings between events and physical processes, which characterize human activities, including social interactions.

Keywords: 

process ontology, events ontology, applied ontology

1. Introduction
2. Objets, processus et événements
3. Modes d’existence contrastés des processus physiques et des événements
4. Couplages temporels et causaux entre processus et événements
5. Conclusion
Remerciements

Nous remercions chaleureusement Claudio Masolo et Dominique Thiault ainsi que les deux relecteurs anonymes de la revue dont les remarques ont permis d’apporter plusieurs améliorations substantielles à une première version du texte.

  References

Barbero C. (2014). Emma And The Others. Rivista di estetica, vol. 56, p. 97-110.

Borgo S., Franssen M., Garbacz P., Kitamura Y., Mizoguchi R., Vermaas P.E. (2014). Technical Artifacts: An integrated perspective. Applied Ontology, vol. 9, n° 3-4, p. 217-35.

Bennett J. (1996). What Events Are. In Casati R., Varzi A.C. (eds.), Events. Dartmouth Publishing Company, p. 137-51.

Bottazi E., Ferrario R., Masolo C. (2012). The mysterious appearance of objects. In Donnelly M., Guizzardi G. (eds.), proc. of Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS 2012), Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, IOS Press, vol. 239, p. 59-72.

Casati R., Varzi A.C. (eds.)(1996). Events. Dartmouth Publishing Company.

Chisholm R. (1970). Events and Propositions. Noûs, vol. 4, p. 15-24.

Choi S., Fara M. (2016). Dispositions. In Zalta E.N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2016 Edition). URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/ entries/dispositions>

Crowther T. (2011). The Matter of Events. The Review of Metaphysics, vol. 65, n° 1, p. 3-39.

Davidson D. (1967a). Causal relations. Journal of Philosophy, vol. 64, n° 21, p. 691-703.

Davidson (1967b). The Logical Form of Action Sentences. In Rescher N. (ed.), The Logic of Decision and Action, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, p. 81-95.

Davidson D. (1969). The Individuation of Events. In Rescher N. (ed.), Essays in Honor of Carl G. Hempel, Dordrecht: D. Reidel, p. 216-34.

Davidson D. (1970). Events as Particulars. Noûs, vol. 4, n° 1, p. 15-24.

Ecco U. (2010). Quelques commentaires sur les personnages de fiction. SociologieS, dossier Émotions et sentiments, réalité et fiction. URL://sociologies.revues.org/3141.

Ferraris M. (2014). Manifeste du nouveau réalisme. Hermann : Paris ; traduction française de M. Flusin et A. Robert de l’ouvrage (2012) : Manifesto del nuovo realismo.

Galton AP. (2006) On What Goes On: The ontology of processes and events. In Bennett B., Felbaum C. (eds.), proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS2006), p. 4-11.

Galton A. (2008). Experience and History: Processes and their Relation to Events. Journal of Logic and Computation, vol. 18, n° 3, p. 323-40.

Galton A. (2012a). The Ontology of States, Processes, and Events. In Proceedings of the 5th Interdisciplinary Ontology Conference: InterOntology12, p. 35-45.

Galton A. (2012b). States, Processes and Events, and the Ontology of Causal Relations. In Donnelly M., Guizzardi G. (eds.), proceedings of the 7th international conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems, IOS Press, p. 279-92.

Galton A., Mizoguchi R. (2009). The water falls but the waterfall does not fall: New perspectives on objects, processes and events. Applied Ontology, vol. 4, p. 71-107.

Gärdenfors P. (2014). The Evolution of Sentential Structure. Humana.Mente Journal of Philosophical Studies, vol. 27, p. 79-97.

Gill K. (1993). On the Metaphysical Distinction Between Processes and Events. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, vol. 23, n° 3, p. 365-84.

Goldman A.I. (2007). A program for “naturalizing” metaphysics, with application to the ontology of events. The monist, vol. 90, n° 3, p. 457-79.

Grenon P., Smith B. (2004). SNAP and SPAN: Towards dynamic spatial ontology. Spatial Cognition and Computation, vol. 4, n° 1, p. 69-104.

Hacker P.M.S. (1982a). Events, Ontology and Grammar. Philosophy, vol. 57, p. 477-86.

Hacker P.M.S. (1982b). Events and Object in Space and Time. Mind, vol. 91, p. 1-19.

Horgan T. (1978). The Case Against Events. Philosophical Review, vol. 87, n° 1, p. 28-47.

Kassel G. (2010). A formal ontology of artefacts. Applied Ontology, vol. 5, n° 3-4, p. 223-46.

Kassel G., Fürst F., Joiron C. (2016). Ontologie des entités fictives et virtuelles : préliminaires. Technique et Science Informatiques, vol. 35, n° 1, p. 9-30.

Khalidi M. A. (2015). Three Kinds of Social Kinds. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. 90, n° 1, p. 96-112.

Kim J. (1974). Non-causal connections. Noûs, vol. 8, p. 41-52.

Kim J. (1976). Events as Property Exemplifications. In Brand M., Walton D. (eds.), Action Theory, Dordrecht: D. Reidel, p. 159-77.

Livet P., Nef F. (2009). Les êtres sociaux ; processus et virtualité. Hermann, Paris.

Masolo C., Borgo S., Gangemi A., Guarino N., Oltramari A., Schneider L. (2003). The WonderWeb Library of Foundational Ontologies and the DOLCE ontology. WonderWeb Deliverable D18, Final Report, vr. 1.0.

McLaughlin B. (2003). Color, Consciousness, and Color Consciousness. In Smith Q., Jokic A. (eds.), Consciousness, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 97-154.

Moltmann F. (2007). Events, Tropes, and Truthmaking. Philosophical Studies, vol. 134, n° 3, p. 363-403.

Moltmann F. (2013). Abstract Objects and the Semantics of Natural Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pacherie E. (2000). The content of intentions. Mind and Language, vol. 15, n° 4, p. 400-432.

Parsons T. (1990). Events in the Semantics of English. Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press.

Schneider S. (2005). Events. In Fieser J., Dowden B. (eds.), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Searle J.R. (1983). Intentionality. Cambridge University Press.

Soulier E., Thiault D., Kassel G., Saad I. (2016). Ontologie des processus et ontologie sociale pour les processus coopératifs d'entreprise. In Diallo G., Kazar O., Mougin F., (eds.), Actes de la 6e édition des Journées Francophones sur les Ontologies (JFO 2016), p. 173-179.

Steward H. (2012). Actions as Processes. Philosophical Perspectives, vol. 26, n° 1, p. 373-88.

Steward H. (2013). Processes, Continuants, and Individuals. Mind, vol. 122, n° 487, p. 781-812.

Steward H. (2015). What is a continuant? In Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume: LXXXIX, p. 109-123.

Stout R. (1997). Processes. Philosophy, vol. 72, n° 279, p. 19-27.

Stout R. (2003). The life of a process. In Debrock G. (ed.), Process Pragmatism: Essays on a Quiet Philosophical Revolution, Rodopi, p. 145-57.

Stout R. (2016). The category of occurrent continuants. Mind, vol. 125, n° 497, p. 41-62.

Thomasson A.L. (2003). Foundations for a social ontology. Protosociology, vol. 18, p. 269-90.

Thomasson A.L. (à paraître). If models were fictions, then what would they be? The Scientific Imagination, Goodfrey-Smith P., Levy A., (eds.), Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Varzi A.C. (2011). Boundaries, Conventions, and Realism. In Campbell J.K., O’Rourke M., Slater M.H., (eds.), Carving Nature at Its Joints: Natural Kinds in Metaphysics and Science, Cambridge MIT Press, p. 129-53.

Varzi A.C. (2013). Fictionalism in Ontology. In Barbero C., Ferraris M., Voltolini A., (eds.), From Fictionalism to Realism, Newcastle, UK, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, p. 133-51.

Varzi A.C. (2014). Realism in the Desert. In Dell’Utri M., Bacchini F., Caputo S., (eds.), Realism and Ontology without Myths, Newcastle, UK, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, p. 16-31.

Velleman J.D. (1992). What Happens When Someone Acts? Mind, vol. 101, n° 403, p. 461-481.

Warglien M., Gärdenfors P., Westera M. (2012). Event structure, conceptual spaces and the semantics of verbs. Theoretical Linguistics, vol. 38, n° 3-4, p. 159-193.

Zalta E.N. (1983). Abstract Objects: An Introduction to Axiomatic Metaphysics. Dordrecht D. Reidel.