https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/api.php?action=feedcontributions&feedformat=atom&user=Phismith 2026-11-12T23:43:35Z User contributions MediaWiki 1.43.11 https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=355 2026-11-05T15:15:40Z

<p>Phismith: /* UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program */</p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Programs==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective]<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> <br /> '''Electives'''<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521:[https://explore.suny.edu/courses/1452134 Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator]<br /> *CRX 504: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606: Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682: Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676: The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Advance notice of Courses for Spring 2027 '''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX: Ontology of Law (Smith) [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Preliminary_Materials_Regarding_Ontology_of_Law Preliminary Reading Materials]<br /> <br /> *PHI 637: Ontology and AI (Smith) [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Course Materials]<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith) [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Course Materials]<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570: Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635: Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> '''YOUTUBE CHANNELS'''<br /> <br /> *[https://www.youtube.com/@johnbeve John Beverley]<br /> <br /> *[https://youtube.com/@barrysmithontology Barry Smith]<br /> <br /> '''COURSE ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB93tnrx5qPI The World's Ontology Ecosystem]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective&diff=354 2026-10-22T19:44:21Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>PHI 601 Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective - Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Registration number 23606<br /> <br /> Instructor: [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith Barry Smith] <br /> <br /> '''Office hours''': By appointment via email to [mailto:phismith@buffalo.edu]<br /> <br /> '''The Course'''<br /> <br /> This course is a 1 credit-hour asynchronous online course for masters-level students and advanced undergraduates. No background in philosophy or ontology is presupposed.<br /> <br /> It provides an introduction to central themes in the history of philosophy viewed from an ontological perspective. The course is designed to be of interest to both philosophers and those with a background in computer and information science. Topics treated will include: <br /> <br /> - brief history of ontology from Aristotle to the Human Genome Project. <br /> <br /> - the meaning of life<br /> <br /> - the ontology of social reality<br /> <br /> - ontology leaving the mother ship of philosophy<br /> <br /> - why computer science needs philosophy<br /> <br /> - the Semantic Web<br /> <br /> - towards a standard top-level ontology<br /> <br /> - ontology and the Federal Government Data Integration Initiative (anno 2009)<br /> <br /> '''[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTjov-UhEW7N145LVBPrRYLZ Course content, which consists of 8 lectures, can be found here].'''<br /> <br /> <br /> == '''Student Learning Outcomes''' ==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! Program Outcomes/Competencies <br /> ! Instructional Method(s)<br /> ! Assessment Method(s)<br /> |-<br /> | The student will acquire a beginner's knowledge of philosophy that will introduce him or her to more technical aspects of the discipline in subsequent semesters. <br /> | Lectures and class discussions.<br /> | Assessment of questions submitted at the end of the lectures.<br /> |-<br /> | The student will acquire experience in using one principal philosophical method, namely: analysing arguments and formulating relevant questions for which answers have not been provided in the course of the lectures.<br /> | The student is required to submit written questions for each of the 8 lectures making up the course.<br /> | Review of questions for relevance and originality.<br /> |-<br /> | The student will acquire experience in using a second principal philosophical method, namely: taking an active part in oral arguments.<br /> | Performance in the final -- synchronous -- session of the course, active participation in which is compulsory.<br /> | Review of active participation by student.<br /> |}<br /> <br /> <br /> '''Grading'''<br /> Grading for the course will take the following form. For each of the 8 lectures the student is required to prepare a single question relating to the content of that lecture. It should be such that an answer to the question is not provided in the lecture. It should also be of general interest to the other students taking the course. After digesting the content of all lectures the student should send a list of 8 questions to phismith@buffalo.edu with the subject heading &quot;8 Questions&quot;. After receiving emails of this form from all students enrolled in the class, '''and not later than November 30''', one or more zoom meetings will be organized at which students will be required to engage in arguments pertaining to a subset of these questions. Participation in these zoom meeting is required by all class participants, and class contributions will be part of the grade for the course. <br /> <br /> The final grade will be calculated on the basis of: <br /> :1. quality of questions, measured in terms of interestingness, clarity, and relevance to the course<br /> :2. completeness of the list of questions received<br /> :3. quality of contributions to the final synchronous meeting<br /> <br /> A video recording of Dr Smith's answers to representative questions is available [https://buffalo.box.com/v/Questions-on-ontology here].<br /> <br /> For further information please contact Dr Smith at phismith@buffalo.edu<br /> <br /> '''Grade Quality Percentage'''<br /> <br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has completed some but not all requirements for the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> Related Policies and Services<br /> Academic integrity is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See http://grad.buffalo.edu/Academics/Policies-Procedures/Academic-Integrity.html.<br /> <br /> Accessibility resources: If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web here.<br /> <br /> University suppert services: Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> Available resources on sexual assault: UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> Counselling services: As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting:<br /> <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837<br /> <br /> == '''Recommended reading''' ==<br /> <br /> :Marjorie Grene, ''A Portrait of Aristotle''<br /> :R. Arp, B. Smith, A. D. Spear, ''[https://mitpress.mit.edu/index.php?q=books/building-ontologies-basic-formal-ontology Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]''<br /> :John R. Searle, ''Making the Social World''<br /> :E. J. Lowe, ''The Four Category Ontology''<br /> :Roman Ingarden, ''The Literary Work of Art. An Investigation on the Borderlines of Ontology, Logic, and Theory of Language''</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective&diff=353 2026-10-22T19:42:46Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>PHI 601 Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective - Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Registration number 23606<br /> <br /> Instructor: [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith Barry Smith] <br /> <br /> '''Office hours''': By appointment via email to [mailto:phismith@buffalo.edu]<br /> <br /> '''The Course'''<br /> <br /> This course is a 1 credit-hour asynchronous online course for masters-level students and advanced undergraduates. No background in philosophy or ontology is presupposed.<br /> <br /> It provides an introduction to central themes in the history of philosophy viewed from an ontological perspective. The course is designed to be of interest to both philosophers and those with a background in computer and information science. Topics treated will include: <br /> <br /> - brief history of ontology from Aristotle to the Human Genome Project. <br /> <br /> - the meaning of life<br /> <br /> - the ontology of social reality<br /> <br /> - ontology leaving the mother ship of philosophy<br /> <br /> - why computer science needs philosophy<br /> <br /> - the Semantic Web<br /> <br /> - towards a standard top-level ontology<br /> <br /> - ontology and the Federal Government Data Integration Initiative (anno 2009)<br /> <br /> '''[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTjov-UhEW7N145LVBPrRYLZ Course content, which consists of 8 lectures, can be found here].'''<br /> <br /> <br /> == '''Student Learning Outcomes''' ==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! Program Outcomes/Competencies <br /> ! Instructional Method(s)<br /> ! Assessment Method(s)<br /> |-<br /> | The student will acquire a beginner's knowledge of philosophy that will introduce him or her to more technical aspects of the discipline in subsequent semesters. <br /> | Lectures and class discussions.<br /> | Assessment of questions submitted at the end of the lectures.<br /> |-<br /> | The student will acquire experience in using one principal philosophical method, namely: analysing arguments and formulating relevant questions for which answers have not been provided in the course of the lectures.<br /> | The student is required to submit written questions for each of the 8 lectures making up the course.<br /> | Review of questions for relevance and originality.<br /> |-<br /> | The student will acquire experience in using a second principal philosophical method, namely: taking an active part in oral arguments.<br /> | Performance in the final -- synchronous -- session of the course, active participation in which is compulsory.<br /> | Review of active participation by student.<br /> |}<br /> <br /> <br /> '''Grading'''<br /> Grading for the course will take the following form. For each of the 8 lectures the student is required to prepare a single question relating to the content of that lecture. It should be such that an answer to the question is not provided in the lecture. It should also be of general interest to the other students taking the course. After digesting the content of all lectures the student should send a list of 8 questions to phismith@buffalo.edu with the subject heading &quot;8 Questions&quot;. After receiving emails of this form from all students enrolled in the class, '''and not later than April 15''', one or more zoom meetings will be organized at which students will be required to engage in arguments pertaining to a subset of these questions. Participation in these zoom meeting is required by all class participants, and class contributions will be part of the grade for the course. <br /> <br /> The final grade will be calculated on the basis of: <br /> :1. quality of questions, measured in terms of interestingness, clarity, and relevance to the course<br /> :2. completeness of the list of questions received<br /> :3. quality of contributions to the final synchronous meeting<br /> <br /> A video recording of Dr Smith's answers to representative questions is available [https://buffalo.box.com/v/Questions-on-ontology here].<br /> <br /> For further information please contact Dr Smith at phismith@buffalo.edu<br /> <br /> '''Grade Quality Percentage'''<br /> <br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has completed some but not all requirements for the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> Related Policies and Services<br /> Academic integrity is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See http://grad.buffalo.edu/Academics/Policies-Procedures/Academic-Integrity.html.<br /> <br /> Accessibility resources: If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web here.<br /> <br /> University suppert services: Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> Available resources on sexual assault: UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> Counselling services: As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting:<br /> <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837<br /> <br /> == '''Recommended reading''' ==<br /> <br /> :Marjorie Grene, ''A Portrait of Aristotle''<br /> :R. Arp, B. Smith, A. D. Spear, ''[https://mitpress.mit.edu/index.php?q=books/building-ontologies-basic-formal-ontology Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]''<br /> :John R. Searle, ''Making the Social World''<br /> :E. J. Lowe, ''The Four Category Ontology''<br /> :Roman Ingarden, ''The Literary Work of Art. An Investigation on the Borderlines of Ontology, Logic, and Theory of Language''</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective&diff=352 2026-10-22T19:40:45Z

<p>Phismith: /* Student Learning Outcomes */</p> <hr /> <div>PHI 601 Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective - Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Registration number 23606<br /> <br /> Instructor: [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith Barry Smith] <br /> <br /> '''Office hours''': By appointment via email to [mailto:phismith@buffalo.edu]<br /> <br /> '''The Course'''<br /> <br /> This course is a 1 credit-hour asynchronous online course for masters-level students and advanced undergraduates. No background in philosophy or ontology is presupposed.<br /> <br /> It provides an introduction to central themes in the history of philosophy viewed from an ontological perspective. The course is designed to be of interest to both philosophers and those with a background in computer and information science. Topics treated will include: <br /> <br /> - brief history of ontology from Aristotle to the Human Genome Project. <br /> <br /> - the meaning of life<br /> <br /> - the ontology of social reality<br /> <br /> - ontology leaving the mother ship of philosophy<br /> <br /> - why computer science needs philosophy<br /> <br /> - the Semantic Web<br /> <br /> - towards a standard top-level ontology<br /> <br /> - ontology and the Federal Government Data Integration Initiative (anno 2009)<br /> <br /> '''[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTjov-UhEW7N145LVBPrRYLZ Course content, which consists of 8 lectures, can be found here].'''<br /> <br /> <br /> == '''Student Learning Outcomes''' ==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! Program Outcomes/Competencies <br /> ! Instructional Method(s)<br /> ! Assessment Method(s)<br /> |-<br /> | The student will acquire a beginner's knowledge of philosophy that will introduce him or her to more technical aspects of the discipline in subsequent semesters. <br /> | Lectures and class discussions.<br /> | Assessment of questions submitted at the end of the lectures.<br /> |-<br /> | The student will acquire experience in using one principal philosophical method, namely: analysing arguments and formulating relevant questions for which answers have not been provided in the course of the lectures.<br /> | The student is required to submit written questions for each of the 8 lectures making up the course.<br /> | Review of questions for relevance and originality.<br /> |-<br /> | The student will acquire experience in using a second principal philosophical method, namely: taking an active part in oral arguments.<br /> | Performance in the final -- synchronous -- session of the course, active participation in which is compulsory.<br /> | Review of active participation by student.<br /> |}<br /> <br /> '''Grading'''<br /> Grading for the course will take the form of oral argument sessions scheduled in online class meetings at the end of the semester, where students will be required to demonstrate their understanding of how BFO deals with the topics listed. These sessions will take the following form. For each of the 8 lectures the student is required to prepare a single question relating to the content of that lecture. It should be such that an answer to the question is not provided in the lecture. It should also be of general interest to the other students taking the course. After digesting the content of all lectures the student should send a list of 8 questions to phismith@buffalo.edu with the subject heading &quot;8 Questions&quot;. After receiving emails of this form from all students enrolled in the class, one or more zoom meetings will be organized at which students will be required to engage in arguments pertaining to a subset of these questions. Participation in these zoom meeting is required by all class participants, and class contributions will be part of the grade for the course. <br /> <br /> A video recording of Dr Smith's answers to representative questions is available [https://buffalo.box.com/v/Questions-on-ontology here].<br /> <br /> The final grade will be calculated on the basis of: <br /> :1. quality of questions, measured in terms of interestingness, clarity, and relevance to the course<br /> :2. completeness of the list of questions received<br /> :3. quality of contributions to the final synchronous meeting<br /> <br /> 3-credit hour students will be required in addition to the above to work together on BFO-related projects in teams under the guidance of Dr Smith. These can range from the joint authoring of papers for publication to the creation of youtube videos addressed to specific groups of potential users of BFO, including high school students or UB students working on AI or on data science. Our students come from a variety of<br /> different countries, and from a variety of backgrounds, including senior US government officials, data scientists and information technologies, bioinformaticians, as well as librarians and philosophers. Our teams are put together in such as way as to allow team members to profit from collaborations with students from different backgrounds.<br /> <br /> For further information please contact Dr Smith at phismith@buffalo.edu<br /> <br /> '''Grade Quality Percentage'''<br /> <br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has completed some but not all requirements for the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> Related Policies and Services<br /> Academic integrity is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See http://grad.buffalo.edu/Academics/Policies-Procedures/Academic-Integrity.html.<br /> <br /> Accessibility resources: If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web here.<br /> <br /> University suppert services: Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> Available resources on sexual assault: UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> Counselling services: As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting:<br /> <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837<br /> <br /> == '''Recommended reading''' ==<br /> <br /> :Marjorie Grene, ''A Portrait of Aristotle''<br /> :R. Arp, B. Smith, A. D. Spear, ''[https://mitpress.mit.edu/index.php?q=books/building-ontologies-basic-formal-ontology Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]''<br /> :John R. Searle, ''Making the Social World''<br /> :E. J. Lowe, ''The Four Category Ontology''<br /> :Roman Ingarden, ''The Literary Work of Art. An Investigation on the Borderlines of Ontology, Logic, and Theory of Language''</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Preliminary_Materials_Regarding_Ontology_of_Law&diff=351 2026-10-21T23:36:38Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>'''Existing Legal Ontologies'''<br /> :[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228738875_Epistemology_and_ontology_in_core_ontologies_FOLaw_and_LRI-Core_two_core_ontologies_for_law Two (old) core ontologies for law (from 2004)]<br /> :[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lg4z2up6HI&amp;list=PLyngZgIl3WTiRB5y0SvG07OExmuURsVBw&amp;pp=0gcJCbwFa94AFGB0sAgC Videos by BS on Document Acts]<br /> :[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-jAhwkeC7Q&amp;list=PLyngZgIl3WTiijjT0n02R_ToQAIm1pqrQ&amp;pp=sAgC Videos by BS on Deontic Ontology (including Ontology of Obligations)]<br /> :[https://davidkoepsell.com/AStructuralOntologyOfTheLaw/ David Koepsell on a Structural Ontology of Law]<br /> <br /> '''Adolf Reinach and the Ontology of Law&quot;<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/REITAP-9 The A Priori Foundations of the Civil Law]<br /> :[https://www.academia.edu/8534917/REINACH_ADOLF_2010_LOS_FUNDAMENTOS_A_PRIORI_DEL_DERECHO_CIVIL_MA_RIANO_CRESPO_TRADUCTOR_GRANADA_EDITORIAL_COMARES_168_PP Los fundamentos a priori del derecho civil (Spanish translation by Mariano Crespo)]<br /> :[https://www.libreriauniversitaria.it/fondamenti-priori-diritto-civile-reinach/libro/9788814022401 I fondamenti a priori del diritto civile (Italian translation by Daniela Falcione)]<br /> :[https://ulysse.univ-lorraine.fr/discovery/fulldisplay/alma991004853919705596/33UDL_INST:UDL Les fondements a priori du droit civil (French translation by Ronan de Calan)]<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/REISWT-2 German original]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Preliminary_Materials_Regarding_Ontology_of_Law&diff=350 2026-10-21T23:18:49Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>'''Existing Legal Ontologies'''<br /> :[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228738875_Epistemology_and_ontology_in_core_ontologies_FOLaw_and_LRI-Core_two_core_ontologies_for_law Two (old) core ontologies for law (from 2004)]<br /> :[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lg4z2up6HI&amp;list=PLyngZgIl3WTiRB5y0SvG07OExmuURsVBw&amp;pp=0gcJCbwFa94AFGB0sAgC Videos by BS on Document Acts]<br /> :[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-jAhwkeC7Q&amp;list=PLyngZgIl3WTiijjT0n02R_ToQAIm1pqrQ&amp;pp=sAgC Videos by BS on Deontic Ontology (including Ontology of Obligations)]<br /> :[https://davidkoepsell.com/AStructuralOntologyOfTheLaw/ David Koepsell on a Structural Ontology of Law]<br /> <br /> '''Adolf Reinach and the Ontology of Law&quot;<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/REITAP-9 The A Priori Foundations of the Civil Law]<br /> :[https://www.academia.edu/8534917/REINACH_ADOLF_2010_LOS_FUNDAMENTOS_A_PRIORI_DEL_DERECHO_CIVIL_MA_RIANO_CRESPO_TRADUCTOR_GRANADA_EDITORIAL_COMARES_168_PP Los fundamentos a priori del derecho civil (Spanish translation by Mariano Crespo)]<br /> :[https://www.libreriauniversitaria.it/fondamenti-priori-diritto-civile-reinach/libro/9788814022401 I fondamenti a priori del diritto civile (Italian translation by Daniela Falcione)]<br /> :[https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=%2Fg%2F12bp4sppy&amp;q=Les+fondements+a+priori+du+droit+civil Les fondements a priori du droit civil (French translation by Ronan de Calan)]<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/REISWT-2 German original]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Preliminary_Materials_Regarding_Ontology_of_Law&diff=349 2026-10-21T23:15:09Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>'''Existing Legal Ontologies'''<br /> :[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228738875_Epistemology_and_ontology_in_core_ontologies_FOLaw_and_LRI-Core_two_core_ontologies_for_law Two (old) core ontologies for law (from 2004)]<br /> :[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lg4z2up6HI&amp;list=PLyngZgIl3WTiRB5y0SvG07OExmuURsVBw&amp;pp=0gcJCbwFa94AFGB0sAgC Videos by BS on Document Acts]<br /> :[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-jAhwkeC7Q&amp;list=PLyngZgIl3WTiijjT0n02R_ToQAIm1pqrQ&amp;pp=sAgC Videos by BS on Deontic Ontology (including Ontology of Obligations)]<br /> :[https://davidkoepsell.com/AStructuralOntologyOfTheLaw/ David Koepsell on a Structural Ontology of Law]<br /> <br /> '''Adolf Reinach and the Ontology of Law&quot;<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/REITAP-9 The A Priori Foundations of the Civil Law]<br /> :[https://www.academia.edu/8534917/REINACH_ADOLF_2010_LOS_FUNDAMENTOS_A_PRIORI_DEL_DERECHO_CIVIL_MA_RIANO_CRESPO_TRADUCTOR_GRANADA_EDITORIAL_COMARES_168_PP Los fundamentos a priori del derecho civil (Spanish translation by Mariano Crespo)]<br /> :[https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=%2Fg%2F12bm7954x&amp;q=I+fondamenti+a+priori+del+diritto+civile I fondamenti a priori del diritto civile (Italian translation by Daniela Falcione)]<br /> :[https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=%2Fg%2F12bp4sppy&amp;q=Les+fondements+a+priori+du+droit+civil Les fondements a priori du droit civil (French translation by Ronan de Calan)]<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/REISWT-2 German original]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Preliminary_Materials_Regarding_Ontology_of_Law&diff=348 2026-10-21T23:05:07Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>'''Existing Legal Ontologies'''<br /> :[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228738875_Epistemology_and_ontology_in_core_ontologies_FOLaw_and_LRI-Core_two_core_ontologies_for_law Two (old) core ontologies for law (from 2004)]<br /> :[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lg4z2up6HI&amp;list=PLyngZgIl3WTiRB5y0SvG07OExmuURsVBw&amp;pp=0gcJCbwFa94AFGB0sAgC Videos by BS on Document Acts]<br /> :[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-jAhwkeC7Q&amp;list=PLyngZgIl3WTiijjT0n02R_ToQAIm1pqrQ&amp;pp=sAgC Videos by BS on Deontic Ontology (including Ontology of Obligations)]<br /> :[https://davidkoepsell.com/AStructuralOntologyOfTheLaw/ David Koepsell on a Structural Ontology of Law]<br /> <br /> '''Adolf Reinach and the Ontology of Law&quot;<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/REITAP-9 The A Priori Foundations of the Civil Law]<br /> :[https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=%2Fg%2F12bm7954x&amp;q=Los+fundamentos+a+priori+del+derecho+civil Los fundamentos a priori del derecho civil (Spanish translation by Mariano Crespo)]<br /> :[https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=%2Fg%2F12bm7954x&amp;q=I+fondamenti+a+priori+del+diritto+civile I fondamenti a priori del diritto civile (Italian translation by Daniela Falcione)]<br /> :[https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=%2Fg%2F12bp4sppy&amp;q=Les+fondements+a+priori+du+droit+civil Les fondements a priori du droit civil (French translation by Ronan de Calan)]<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/REISWT-2 German original]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=347 2026-10-07T19:47:22Z

<p>Phismith: /* 5:30 to 6:30pm, Monday, October 12 Ad Hoc Question and Answer Session */</p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> Faculty: Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Assistant: Elena Milivinti<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as indicated below (&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;synchronous is yellow):<br /> <br /> :Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> :Course textbook ''[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]''<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;5:30 to 6:30pm, Monday, October 12: Ad Hoc Question and Answer Session==<br /> :All students are invited to raise questions they may have regarding this course and the entire program.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=346 2026-10-07T19:47:09Z

<p>Phismith: /* 5:30 to 6:30pm, Monday, October 12 Question and Answer Session ) */</p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> Faculty: Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Assistant: Elena Milivinti<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as indicated below (&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;synchronous is yellow):<br /> <br /> :Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> :Course textbook ''[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]''<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;5:30 to 6:30pm, Monday, October 12 Ad Hoc Question and Answer Session==<br /> :All students are invited to raise questions they may have regarding this course and the entire program.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=345 2026-10-07T19:46:41Z

<p>Phismith: /* 5:30 to 6:30pm Question and Answer Session (October 12) */</p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> Faculty: Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Assistant: Elena Milivinti<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as indicated below (&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;synchronous is yellow):<br /> <br /> :Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> :Course textbook ''[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]''<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==5:30 to 6:30pm, Monday, October 12 &lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;Question and Answer Session )==<br /> :All students are invited to raise questions they may have regarding this course and the entire program.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=344 2026-10-07T19:45:26Z

<p>Phismith: /* Question and Answer Session (October 12)-, 5:30 to 6:30pm */</p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> Faculty: Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Assistant: Elena Milivinti<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as indicated below (&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;synchronous is yellow):<br /> <br /> :Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> :Course textbook ''[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]''<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==5:30 to 6:30pm &lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;Question and Answer Session (October 12)==<br /> :All students are invited to raise questions they may have regarding this course and the entire program.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=343 2026-10-07T19:44:44Z

<p>Phismith: /* Question and Answer Session (October 12)-, 5:30 to 6:30pm= */</p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> Faculty: Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Assistant: Elena Milivinti<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as indicated below (&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;synchronous is yellow):<br /> <br /> :Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> :Course textbook ''[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]''<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;Question and Answer Session (October 12)-, 5:30 to 6:30pm==<br /> :All students are invited to raise questions they may have regarding this course and the entire program.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=342 2026-10-07T19:44:13Z

<p>Phismith: /* Week 8 (October 12): Capabilities (2022); BFO and DOLCE */</p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> Faculty: Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Assistant: Elena Milivinti<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as indicated below (&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;synchronous is yellow):<br /> <br /> :Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> :Course textbook ''[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]''<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> =Question and Answer Session (October 12)-, 5:30 to 6:30pm==<br /> :All students are invited to raise questions they may have regarding this course and the entire program.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=341 2026-10-07T19:43:18Z

<p>Phismith: /* Week 8 (October 12): Capabilities (2022); BFO and DOLCE */</p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> Faculty: Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Assistant: Elena Milivinti<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as indicated below (&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;synchronous is yellow):<br /> <br /> :Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> :Course textbook ''[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]''<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> =Question and Answer Session (October 12), 5:30 to 6:30pm : All students are invited to raise questions they may have regarding this course and the entire program.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=340 2026-09-27T23:50:57Z

<p>Phismith: /* UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program */</p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective]<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> <br /> '''Electives'''<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521:[https://explore.suny.edu/courses/1452134 Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator]<br /> *CRX 504: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606: Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682: Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676: The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Advance notice of Courses for Spring 2027 '''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX: Ontology of Law (Smith) [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Preliminary_Materials_Regarding_Ontology_of_Law Preliminary Reading Materials]<br /> <br /> *PHI 637: Ontology and AI (Smith) [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Course Materials]<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith) [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Course Materials]<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570: Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635: Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> '''YOUTUBE CHANNELS'''<br /> <br /> *[https://www.youtube.com/@johnbeve John Beverley]<br /> <br /> *[https://youtube.com/@barrysmithontology Barry Smith]<br /> <br /> '''COURSE ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB93tnrx5qPI The World's Ontology Ecosystem]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=339 2026-09-22T17:27:14Z

<p>Phismith: /* UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program */</p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective]<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> <br /> '''Electives'''<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521:[https://explore.suny.edu/courses/1452134 Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator]<br /> *CRX 504: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606: Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682: Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676: The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX: Ontology of Law (Smith) [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Preliminary_Materials_Regarding_Ontology_of_Law Preliminary Reading Materials]<br /> <br /> *PHI 637: Ontology and AI (Smith) [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Course Materials]<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith) [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Course Materials]<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570: Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635: Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> '''YOUTUBE CHANNELS'''<br /> <br /> *[https://www.youtube.com/@johnbeve John Beverley]<br /> <br /> *[https://youtube.com/@barrysmithontology Barry Smith]<br /> <br /> '''COURSE ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB93tnrx5qPI The World's Ontology Ecosystem]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Preliminary_Materials_Regarding_Ontology_of_Law&diff=338 2026-09-19T17:55:27Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>'''Existing Legal Ontologies'''<br /> :[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228738875_Epistemology_and_ontology_in_core_ontologies_FOLaw_and_LRI-Core_two_core_ontologies_for_law Two (old) core ontologies for law (from 2004)]<br /> :[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lg4z2up6HI&amp;list=PLyngZgIl3WTiRB5y0SvG07OExmuURsVBw&amp;pp=0gcJCbwFa94AFGB0sAgC Videos by BS on Document Acts]<br /> :[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-jAhwkeC7Q&amp;list=PLyngZgIl3WTiijjT0n02R_ToQAIm1pqrQ&amp;pp=sAgC Videos by BS on Deontic Ontology (including Ontology of Obligations)]<br /> :[https://davidkoepsell.com/AStructuralOntologyOfTheLaw/ David Koepsell on a Structural Ontology of Law]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Preliminary_Materials_Regarding_Ontology_of_Law&diff=337 2026-09-17T20:44:44Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>'''Existing Legal Ontologies'''<br /> :[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228738875_Epistemology_and_ontology_in_core_ontologies_FOLaw_and_LRI-Core_two_core_ontologies_for_law Two core ontologies for law (from 2004)]<br /> :[https://davidkoepsell.com/AStructuralOntologyOfTheLaw/ David Koepsell on: A Structural Ontology of the Law]<br /> :[http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/real-estate-smith.htm Papers on the Ontology of Real Estate]<br /> :[http://ontology.buffalo.edu/document_ontology/ Papers on Document Acts Ontology]<br /> <br /> '''Videos'''<br /> :[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lg4z2up6HI&amp;list=PLyngZgIl3WTiRB5y0SvG07OExmuURsVBw&amp;pp=0gcJCbwFa94AFGB0sAgC Videos by BS on Document Acts]<br /> :[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-jAhwkeC7Q&amp;list=PLyngZgIl3WTiijjT0n02R_ToQAIm1pqrQ&amp;pp=sAgC Videos by BS on Deontology (including the ontology of obligations)]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Preliminary_Materials_Regarding_Ontology_of_Law&diff=336 2026-09-17T20:38:51Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>'''Existing Legal Ontologies'''<br /> :[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228738875_Epistemology_and_ontology_in_core_ontologies_FOLaw_and_LRI-Core_two_core_ontologies_for_law Two core ontologies for law (from 2004)]<br /> :[https://davidkoepsell.com/AStructuralOntologyOfTheLaw/ David Koepsell on: A Structural Ontology of the Law]<br /> :[http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/real-estate-smith.htm Papers on the Ontology of Real Estate]<br /> <br /> '''Videos'''<br /> :[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lg4z2up6HI&amp;list=PLyngZgIl3WTiRB5y0SvG07OExmuURsVBw&amp;pp=0gcJCbwFa94AFGB0sAgC Videos by BS on Document Acts]<br /> :[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-jAhwkeC7Q&amp;list=PLyngZgIl3WTiijjT0n02R_ToQAIm1pqrQ&amp;pp=sAgC Videos by BS on Deontology (including the ontology of obligations)]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Preliminary_Materials_Regarding_Ontology_of_Law&diff=335 2026-09-17T20:28:34Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>'''Existing Legal Ontologies'''<br /> :[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228738875_Epistemology_and_ontology_in_core_ontologies_FOLaw_and_LRI-Core_two_core_ontologies_for_law Two core ontologies for law (from 2004)]<br /> :[https://davidkoepsell.com/AStructuralOntologyOfTheLaw/ David Koepsell on: A Structural Ontology of the Law]<br /> <br /> '''Videos'''<br /> :[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lg4z2up6HI&amp;list=PLyngZgIl3WTiRB5y0SvG07OExmuURsVBw&amp;pp=0gcJCbwFa94AFGB0sAgC Videos by BS on Document Acts]<br /> :[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-jAhwkeC7Q&amp;list=PLyngZgIl3WTiijjT0n02R_ToQAIm1pqrQ&amp;pp=sAgC Videos by BS on Deontology (including the ontology of obligations)]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=334 2026-09-17T20:04:54Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective]<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> <br /> '''Electives'''<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521: Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator<br /> *CRX 504: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606: Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682: Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676: The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX: Ontology of Law (Smith) [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Preliminary_Materials_Regarding_Ontology_of_Law Preliminary Reading Materials]<br /> <br /> *PHI 637: Ontology and AI (Smith) [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Course Materials]<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith) [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Course Materials]<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570: Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635: Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> '''YOUTUBE CHANNELS'''<br /> <br /> *[https://www.youtube.com/@johnbeve John Beverley]<br /> <br /> *[https://youtube.com/@barrysmithontology Barry Smith]<br /> <br /> '''COURSE ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB93tnrx5qPI The World's Ontology Ecosystem]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=333 2026-09-17T20:04:05Z

<p>Phismith: /* UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program */</p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective]<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> <br /> '''Electives'''<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521: Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator<br /> *CRX 504: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606: Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682: Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676: The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX: Ontology of Law (Smith) [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Preliminary_Materials_Regarding_Ontology_of_Law Preliminary Reading Materials]<br /> <br /> *PHI 637: Ontology and AI (Smith) [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Course Materials]<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570: Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635: Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> '''YOUTUBE CHANNELS'''<br /> <br /> *[https://www.youtube.com/@johnbeve John Beverley]<br /> <br /> *[https://youtube.com/@barrysmithontology Barry Smith]<br /> <br /> '''COURSE ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB93tnrx5qPI The World's Ontology Ecosystem]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=332 2026-09-17T20:01:42Z

<p>Phismith: /* UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program */</p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective]<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> <br /> '''Electives'''<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521: Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator<br /> *CRX 504: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606: Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682: Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676: The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX: Ontology of Law (Smith) [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Preliminary_Materials_Regarding_Ontology_of_Law Preliminary Reading Materials]<br /> <br /> *PHI 637: Ontology and AI (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570: Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635: Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> '''YOUTUBE CHANNELS'''<br /> <br /> *[https://www.youtube.com/@johnbeve John Beverley]<br /> <br /> *[https://youtube.com/@barrysmithontology Barry Smith]<br /> <br /> '''COURSE ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB93tnrx5qPI The World's Ontology Ecosystem]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=331 2026-09-17T20:01:16Z

<p>Phismith: /* UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program */</p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective]<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> <br /> '''Electives'''<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521: Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator<br /> *CRX 504: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606: Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682: Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676: The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Preliminary_Materials_Regarding_Ontology_of_Law Preliminary Reading Materials] Ontology of Law (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 637: Ontology and AI (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570: Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635: Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> '''YOUTUBE CHANNELS'''<br /> <br /> *[https://www.youtube.com/@johnbeve John Beverley]<br /> <br /> *[https://youtube.com/@barrysmithontology Barry Smith]<br /> <br /> '''COURSE ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB93tnrx5qPI The World's Ontology Ecosystem]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Preliminary_Materials_Regarding_Ontology_of_Law&diff=330 2026-09-17T19:59:46Z

<p>Phismith: Created page with &quot;&#039;&#039;&#039;Existing Legal Ontologies&#039;&#039;&#039; :[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228738875_Epistemology_and_ontology_in_core_ontologies_FOLaw_and_LRI-Core_two_core_ontologies_for_law Two core ontologies for law (from 2004)]&quot;</p> <hr /> <div>'''Existing Legal Ontologies'''<br /> :[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228738875_Epistemology_and_ontology_in_core_ontologies_FOLaw_and_LRI-Core_two_core_ontologies_for_law Two core ontologies for law (from 2004)]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=329 2026-09-17T19:58:01Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective]<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> <br /> '''Electives'''<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521: Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator<br /> *CRX 504: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606: Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682: Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676: The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX: [[Preliminary Materials Regarding Ontology of Law]] Ontology of Law (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 637: Ontology and AI (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570: Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635: Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> '''YOUTUBE CHANNELS'''<br /> <br /> *[https://www.youtube.com/@johnbeve John Beverley]<br /> <br /> *[https://youtube.com/@barrysmithontology Barry Smith]<br /> <br /> '''COURSE ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB93tnrx5qPI The World's Ontology Ecosystem]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=328 2026-09-12T21:16:49Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective]<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> <br /> '''Electives'''<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521: Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator<br /> *CRX 504: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606: Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682: Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676: The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Ontology of Law (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 637 Ontology and AI (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570 Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635 Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> '''YOUTUBE CHANNELS'''<br /> <br /> *[https://www.youtube.com/@johnbeve John Beverley]<br /> <br /> *[https://youtube.com/@barrysmithontology Barry Smith]<br /> <br /> '''COURSE ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB93tnrx5qPI The World's Ontology Ecosystem]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=327 2026-09-12T21:14:52Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective]<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> <br /> '''Electives'''<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521: Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator<br /> *CRX 504: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606: Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682: Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676: The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Ontology of Law (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 637 Ontology and AI (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570 Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635 Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> '''YOUTUBE CHANNELS'''<br /> <br /> *[https://www.youtube.com/@johnbeve John Beverley]<br /> <br /> *[https://youtube.com/@barrysmithontology Barry Smith]<br /> <br /> '''CPOURSE ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [[The World's Ontology Ecosystem]]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=326 2026-09-12T21:13:14Z

<p>Phismith: /* UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program */</p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective]<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> <br /> '''Electives'''<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521: Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator<br /> *CRX 504: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606: Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682: Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676: The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Ontology of Law (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 637 Ontology and AI (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570 Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635 Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''YOUTUBE CHANNELS'''<br /> <br /> *[https://www.youtube.com/@johnbeve John Beverley]<br /> <br /> *[https://youtube.com/@barrysmithontology Barry Smith]<br /> <br /> '''ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [[The World's Ontology Ecosystem]]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=325 2026-08-30T13:32:26Z

<p>Phismith: /* UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program */</p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective]<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]]<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> <br /> '''Electives'''<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521: Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator<br /> *CRX 504: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606: Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682: Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676: The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Ontology of Law (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 637 Ontology and AI (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570 Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635 Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [[The World's Ontology Ecosystem]]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=324 2026-08-26T15:01:30Z

<p>Phismith: /* PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology */</p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> Faculty: Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Assistant: Elena Milivinti<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as indicated below (&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;synchronous is yellow):<br /> <br /> :Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> :Course textbook ''[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]''<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=323 2026-08-26T15:00:59Z

<p>Phismith: /* PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology */</p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> Faculty: Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Assistant: Elena Milivinti<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as indicated below (synchronous is yellow):<br /> <br /> :Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> :Course textbook ''[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]''<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=322 2026-08-24T22:32:12Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> <br /> '''Electives'''<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521: Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator<br /> *CRX 504: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606: Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682: Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676: The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Ontology of Law (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 637 Ontology and AI (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570 Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635 Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [[The World's Ontology Ecosystem]]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=321 2026-08-24T22:31:47Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> Electives<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521: Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator<br /> *CRX 504: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606: Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682: Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676: The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Ontology of Law (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 637 Ontology and AI (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570 Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635 Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [[The World's Ontology Ecosystem]]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=320 2026-08-24T22:31:37Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> Electives<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521: Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator<br /> *CRX 504: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606: Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682: Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676: The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Ontology of Law (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 637 Ontology and AI (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570 Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635 Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [[The World's Ontology Ecosystem]]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=319 2026-08-24T22:31:19Z

<p>Phismith: /* UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program */</p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''In the next few weeksWe will be moving current Applied Ontology MS students who wish to switch to the PhD. No action needed on your part at this stage.'''<br /> <br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> Electives<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521: Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator<br /> *CRX 504: Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606: Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682: Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676: The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Ontology of Law (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 637 Ontology and AI (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570 Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635 Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [[The World's Ontology Ecosystem]]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=318 2026-08-24T22:29:57Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''In the next few weeksWe will be moving current Applied Ontology MS students who wish to switch to the PhD. No action needed on your part at this stage.'''<br /> <br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> Electives<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> *COM 521 — Artificial Intelligence as a Medium and Communicator<br /> *CRX 504 — Introductory Statistics for the Social Sciences<br /> *CRX 606 — Social Research Methods<br /> *COM 682 — Audience Analysis and Program Evaluation<br /> *LAI 676 — The Pedagogy of Programming<br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Ontology of Law (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 637 Ontology and AI (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570 Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635 Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [[The World's Ontology Ecosystem]]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=317 2026-08-24T15:21:50Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> Faculty: Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Assistant: Elena Milivinti<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as follows:<br /> <br /> :Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> :Course textbook ''[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]''<br /> <br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=316 2026-08-24T15:21:02Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> Faculty: Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Assistant: Elena Milivinti<br /> <br /> :Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> :Course textbook ''[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]''<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as follows:<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=315 2026-08-24T15:20:45Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> Faculty: Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Assistant: Elena Milivinti<br /> <br /> :Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> :Course textbook //[https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]''<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as follows:<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=314 2026-08-24T15:20:03Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> Faculty: Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Assistant: Elena Milivinti<br /> <br /> :Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> :Course textbook [https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as follows:<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=313 2026-08-24T15:19:47Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> Faculty: Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Assistant: Elena Milivinti<br /> <br /> :Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> :Course textbook [https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as follows:<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=312 2026-08-24T15:11:48Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> Faculty: Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Assistant: Elena Milivinti<br /> <br /> :Course textbook [Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> :Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> :Course textbook [https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as follows:<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=311 2026-08-24T15:11:28Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> Faculty: Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Assistant: Elena Milivinti<br /> <br /> :Course textbook [Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> :Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> :Course textbook [https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as follows:<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=310 2026-08-24T15:10:13Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> Faculty: Dr. Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Course textbook [Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> Course textbook [https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as follows:<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=309 2026-08-24T15:06:40Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> Faculty: Dr. Barry Smith<br /> <br /> Course textbook [Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology]<br /> <br /> Team products: [https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/Results_of_Spring_2026_team_projects examples from Spring 2026]<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as follows:<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=BFO-Intro-Fall-2026&diff=308 2026-08-24T14:52:02Z

<p>Phismith: /* Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online) */</p> <hr /> <div>==PHI 598LEC Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology==<br /> <br /> '''Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> Faculty: Dr. Barry Smith<br /> <br /> ONLINE, TWO CREDIT COURSE, with optional 3rd credit<br /> <br /> This course will present an introduction to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), which is a widely used top-level ontology, approved in 2021 as international standard ISO/IEC 21838-2. The course is divided into an '''asynchronous''' and a '''synchronous''' part, as follows:<br /> <br /> ==The asynchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consists of a series of videos in week-by-week order as listed below. <br /> <br /> The lectures will form part of the basis for '''synchronous''' working sessions, in which students will be divided into teams. Each month students will give presentations on the results of the work of their team thus far. The final two sessions will be devoted to question-answer sessions (see under 'Grading' below).<br /> <br /> You will find further treatment of many of the issues addressed in the videos in the BFO textbook, which is listed under Background Reading below.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;The synchronous part==<br /> <br /> This will consist of practical work by students, either working alone or (preferably) as members of teams. The results of this work will then be communicated through a series of collective zoom meetings (marked in yellow in what follows), supplemented by associated discussions on our Slack channel. <br /> <br /> Students will participate in working sessions designed to lead to the creation of online content -- essays, videos, articles, ... -- for example summarizing (or criticizing) aspects of BFO or describing how BFO can be used in specific areas, or reviewing what results when LLMs are used in BFO coding, or how BFO helps you solve a problem at work. Ideally the content should be suitable for distribution to a wider audience. These working sessions will involve teams, which will be put together in the early weeks of the class with the aid of my research assistant Elena Milivinti. It is hoped that one team will address the charges made against BFO in the paper <br /> [https://buffalo.box.com/v/BFO-Expert-Coding BFO Expert Coding Challenge] (perhaps considering also the [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=53308182319355410&amp;as_sdt=5,33&amp;sciodt=0,33&amp;hl=en citations] to this paper). Other ideas are: a series of tiktok videos or LinkedIn contributions presenting key aspects of BFO; articles intended for publication; projects demonstrating the utility of BFO e.g. for solving problems you face at work, proposals to improve BFO, and so on. Here creativity will contribute to your grade for this class.<br /> <br /> For those students who have a suitable project which they wish to realize on their own, regular meetings with Dr Smith and/or with Ms Milivinti will be organized.<br /> <br /> Working sessions are tentatively scheduled to take place from 7-8pm as listed below.<br /> <br /> ==Week 1 (August 24): Inaugural session (synchronous online)==<br /> <br /> Self-introductions of students<br /> <br /> Creation of course chatbot<br /> <br /> Outline of the course<br /> <br /> Course text: https://buffalo.box.com/v/Building--Ontologies<br /> <br /> Team idea (Spring 2026):<br /> <br /> ==Week 2 (August 31): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sbzF9p7qvk Basic Formal Ontology 101]==<br /> :This is an introduction to building ontologies with BFO, with special reference to the rules for deciding whether a given general term designates a universal.<br /> <br /> ==Week 3 (September 7): [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyngZgIl3WTj6tWcypTLpCnYXu6o93kD4 BFO Tutorial (2019): A Series of 6 Videos]==<br /> <br /> :This is a survey of main features of BFO itself in the form of a series of short tutorials. It deals with BFO 2.0, which differs slightly from BFO 2020, which is the most current version. However the differences relate not to BFO itself, but rather to the new First Order Logic axiomatization of BFO, which was introduced with the ISO standard. Details (for those who are interested in such matters) can be found here: https://ncorwiki.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO_Release_History.<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, September 9: First collective team meeting==<br /> <br /> :Choosing topics and methods and dividing into teams. Teams will then meet on their own schedules and report results at the second collective team meeting on October 21.<br /> <br /> ==Week 4 (September 14): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWkk5AfRCpM Basic Formal Ontology Tutorial]==<br /> <br /> :This is a presentation to an audience of engineers at a meeting of the Industrial Ontologies Foundry. It contains examples of what happens when people argue about BFO. BFO is a realist ontology, which means that all terms of BFO are intended to refer to something that exist. How, then, do we provide a BFO-conformant treatment of the work of an industrial designer, at the point where the object he is designing does not yet exist?<br /> <br /> ==Week 5 (September 21): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwsBxRs9kns The Ontology of Science]==<br /> <br /> :Focuses on the ontology of biology, and on the issue of multi-level ontology -- from molecules to cells to organisms, and from functions at the molecular level to downstream biological processes. BFO claims to be a multi-perspectival ontology, and in particular a multi-granularity ontology, which can work on each of these levels.<br /> <br /> ==Week 6 (September 28): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTx_rRWmTqE Information Artifacts], [https://youtu.be/PBKsupBquok Aboutness], and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3btP1InPZY Language]==<br /> :BFO does not contain terms relating to information entities such as words or mathematical equations or poems. Instead it draws on the category of generically dependent continuants (GDCs), which then forms the starting point of the Information Artifact Ontology. Information artifacts are GDCs which are about something.<br /> <br /> ==Week 7 (October 5): [https://youtu.be/G4lg1_-XpiE Ontology of Terrorism]==<br /> :Acts of terrorism are often described in terms of &quot;sending a message&quot; (for example to a government) through violence or threats of violence. We present the beginnings of an ontology of terrorism on this basis, drawing on the theory of speech acts but also on a more general theory of language according to which a language is a set of capabilities associated with a set of behaviors.<br /> <br /> ==Week 8 (October 12): [https://youtu.be/jH1sc7FTs3w Capabilities (2022)]; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTVR7k63_VA BFO and DOLCE]==<br /> :The first of these two videos proposes a definition of capability as a universal falling between function and disposition as the latter are defined in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Capabilities are like functions in that they can be evaluated on the basis of how well they are realized. They differ from functions in that they are not the rationale for the existence of their bearers. Thus, a water pump may have, in addition to its function of pumping water, many capabilities including: to be weatherproof, to run without lubricant, and so forth. We argue, that all functions are capabilities, but not all capabilities are functions, and we develop a series of axioms to distinguish capabilities formally from both dispositions and functions. We provide examples of the use of capability in a variety of domains, focusing on a definition of language as a capability of persons.<br /> :The second video presents a view of how BFO functions as a support for its users.<br /> <br /> ==Week 9 (October 19): [https://youtu.be/-OUr0tuFloM Relatively isolated systems]==<br /> :Ingarden's work on ontology is one of the principal sources motivating the creation of BFO. We here present Ingarden's work on systems of different types.<br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, Wednesday, October 21: Second collective team meeting==<br /> :Each team will report on preliminary results of their work<br /> <br /> ==Week 10 (October 26): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0masZPGLb0 ISO/IEC 21838]==<br /> :This is the top-level ontology / BFO standard<br /> <br /> ==Week 11 (November 2): JOWO [https://youtu.be/VYDe09TOw2M Part 1], [https://studio.youtube.com/video/wh_KZGXc1Es/edit Part 2], [https://youtu.be/fkkWkTIxrNQ Temporalized Relations]==<br /> <br /> :Begins with a 2-part video of a tutorial presented at the JOWO (Joint Ontologies Workshops). Part 1 introduces BFO to a technical audience. Part 2 provides a brief exposition of the rationale for including temporalized relations in the OWL specification of BFO 2020 (ISO/IEC 21838:2). Since OWL can accommodate only two-place relations, and since the de facto standard formalization of BFO uses OWL, there is a need for strategies to capture the temporal dimensions of general assertions such as &quot;Milk teeth are lost as children grow&quot; or &quot;Thermally heated machines are inspected every 6 months.&quot; The third video provides an attempt at a simplified exposition of the issues involved.<br /> <br /> ==Week 12 (November 9): [https://youtu.be/18php_34s-M The Emotion Ontology], The Ontology of the Organigram==<br /> Why do human beings take pleasure in horror movies, or in music that makes them feel sad? What is the ontological status of an office during the period when the office is not occupied? (Consider for instance the case of the Pope.)<br /> <br /> ==Midnight November 10: Deadline for submission of question-answer emails==<br /> <br /> ==Week 13 (November 11): 7-8pm First Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==Week 14 (November 18): 7-8pm Second Synchronous question-answer session==<br /> <br /> ==&lt;span style=&quot;background:#ffff00&quot;&gt;7pm, November 25, Final collective team meeting==<br /> :Teams will report on the final results of their work.<br /> <br /> ==Grading==<br /> <br /> Students will be graded on the basis of:<br /> <br /> :1. questions (and answers) assembled by students over the course of the semester.<br /> ::For each session, the student should prepare exactly one single-sentence question relating to one of the videos scheduled for that session, together with a 1-paragraph answer to this question. The answer should not be contained in the video content for this class. All questions and answers should be sent in a single email to ifomis@gmail.com on November 10.<br /> :2. interactions and results of the synchronous teams phase <br /> ::Dr Smith and Ms Milivinti will keep track of your interactions in support of your creative work during the course of the semester. Dr Smith will evaluate this content and also results of your work. Features to be graded will include: creativity, quantity of your contributions, success of your project(s). <br /> <br /> Each of 1. and 2. determines 50% of the total grade. Where team work is graded members of teams will receive equal grades.<br /> <br /> '''Additional expectations for students enrolled for 3 credits'''<br /> ::Students enrolled for 3 credits may contribute extra work under the asynchronous or synchronous heading, for example serving as leader in a team. Please communicate with Dr Smith (ifomis@gmail.com) to discuss proposals.<br /> <br /> ==Course bibliography==<br /> <br /> :[https://buffalo.box.com/s/3pyas5wwfwd2bgbe5o2dz36kncm9z5gf] R. Arp, B. Smith, A. Spear, ''Building Ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology'', Cambridge MA: MIT Press (2015).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/JANCIT-2] Jansen, Ludger, and Barry Smith. &quot;Categories in Top-Level Ontologies: Revisiting the Aristotelian Background,&quot; ''Advances in Knowledge Representation'', 5(3) (2025).<br /> :[https://philpapers.org/rec/SIMAST] Peter M. Simons, &quot;Against Set Theory&quot;, in: ''Experience and Analysis'', Vienna: HPT&amp;ÖBV, 143-152 (2005).<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/SMIBCO] Barry Smith, &quot;Beyond concepts: ontology as reality representation,&quot; in: ''Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems'' (FOIS 2004), 73-84. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2004.<br /> :[https://philarchive.org/rec/OTTBBF] J. Neil Otte, John Beverley &amp; Alan Ruttenberg, &quot;BFO: Basic Formal Ontology&quot;, ''Applied ontology'' 17 (1):17-43 (2022) <br /> :[https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html ISO standard]<br /> :[https://github.com/PR0CK0/awesome-bfo Awesome BFO]<br /> <br /> ==Student Learning Outcomes==<br /> <br /> The listed student learning outcomes are deisgned to conform exactly An the larger goals of the UB Applied Ontology graduate programs since a thorough understanding of basic Formal Ontology and skills in its application to real-world problems are xtwo mutually supporting pillars of these programs. <br /> <br /> By the end of this course, students will be able to:<br /> *'''Engage''' in research projects relating to the BFO ontology and how it is deployed.<br /> *'''Support''' diverse groups working with BFO, including those new to ontology, and those with prior ontology development experience in specific fields, such as medicine, finance, industry and government.<br /> *'''Articulate''' a range of rationales for adopting BFO, tailored to different audiences.<br /> *'''Extend''' BFO to new domains by applying design patterns drawn from existing BFO-conformant extension ontologies, such as the [https://commoncoreontology.github.io/cco-webpage/ Common Core ecosystem of mid-level ontologies].<br /> *'''Demonstrate''' teamwork and team-management skills through the collaborative development of artifacts — such as videos, podcasts, interviews, and research papers — useful to potential BFO users.<br /> *'''Respond''' to criticisms of BFO, including by identifying misunderstandings that underlie common critiques.<br /> <br /> ==Supplementary Videos==<br /> <br /> {| class=&quot;wikitable&quot;<br /> |-<br /> ! # !! Video Title !! Duration !! YouTube Link<br /> |-<br /> | 1 || The Ontology of (Supply Chain) Services || 11:35 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Zlunh3eMw<br /> |-<br /> | 2 || Industrial Ontologies Foundry (2022) || 7:52 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pfsimHTApU remember to use Closed Captions<br /> |-<br /> | 3 || Ontology of (Social) Services || 10:38 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qrwWAISrC8<br /> |-<br /> | 4 || Ontology Foundries || 20:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFiwmq7f4wQ<br /> |-<br /> | 5 || BFO Tutorial (2019). Part 1: Introduction to BFO ISO || 41:11 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muafRW0bXgw<br /> |-<br /> | 6 || IOF: Draft BFO Formalization Proposal. 1-25-2019 || 31:06 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJgE-O2iREM<br /> |-<br /> | 7 || How BFO Deals with Data from Multiple Contexts || 16:31 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9AsCDBRJpM<br /> |-<br /> | 8 || Why Do We Need Upper-Level Ontologies? || 20:47 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjf9zeCh_Sw<br /> |-<br /> | 9 || Are there Capabilities on Mars? || 1:30:51 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo7iPP2wKgw<br /> |-<br /> | 10 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 1) || 54:17 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh0f2Us0hr0<br /> |-<br /> | 11 || Building Ontologies: An Introduction for Engineers (Part 2) || 53:01 || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vdUUhF4JdE<br /> |}<br /> <br /> ==Grading Policy==<br /> Grading follows standard [https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html Graduate School policies]. Grades will be weighted according to the following breakdown:<br /> <br /> Weighting Assignment<br /> :20% - class discussions <br /> :15% - video presentation<br /> :15% - powerpoint slides <br /> :50% - essay <br /> <br /> Grade Quality Percentage<br /> {| class = wikitable<br /> | A || 4.0 || 90.0% -100.00%<br /> |-<br /> | A- || 3.67 || 87.0% - 89.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B+ || 3.33 || 84.0% - 86.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B || 3.00 || 80.0% - 83.9%<br /> |-<br /> | B- || 2.67 || 77.0% - 79.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C+ || 2.33 || 74.0% - 76.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C || 2.00 || 71.0% - 73.9%<br /> |-<br /> | C- || 1.67 || 68.0% - 70.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D+ || 1.33 || 65.0% - 67.9%<br /> |-<br /> | D || 1.00 || 62.0% - 64.9%<br /> |-<br /> | F || 0 || 61.9% or below<br /> |}<br /> <br /> An interim grade of Incomplete (I) may be assigned if the student has not completed all requirements for the course. An interim grade of 'I' shall not be assigned to a student who did not attend the course. The default grade accompanying an interim grade of 'I' shall be 'U' and will be displayed on the UB record as 'IU.' The default Unsatisfactory (U) grade shall become the permanent course grade of record if the 'IU' is not changed through formal notice by the instructor upon the student's completion of the course.<br /> <br /> Assignment of an interim 'IU' is at the discretion of the instructor. A grade of 'IU' can be assigned only if successful completion of unfulfilled course requirements can result in a final grade better than the default 'U' grade. The student should have a passing average in the requirements already completed. The instructor shall provide the student specification, in writing, of the requirements to be fulfilled.<br /> <br /> The university’s Graduate Incomplete Policy can be found [http://grad.buffalo.edu/study/progress/policylibrary.a-to-z.html#iugrade here].<br /> <br /> =='''Related Policies and Services'''==<br /> <br /> '''Academic integrity''' is a fundamental university value. Through the honest completion of academic work, students sustain the integrity of the university while facilitating the university's imperative for the transmission of knowledge and culture based upon the generation of new and innovative ideas. See https://www.buffalo.edu/grad/succeed/current-students/policy-library.html#academic-integrity.<br /> <br /> '''Accessibility resources:''' If you have any disability which requires reasonable accommodations to enable you to participate in this course, please contact the Office of Accessibility Resources in 60 Capen Hall, 645-2608 and also the instructor of this course during the first week of class. The office will provide you with information and review appropriate arrangements for reasonable accommodations, which can be found on the web [http://www.buffalo.edu/studentlife/who-we-are/departments/accessibility.html here].<br /> <br /> '''University suppert services:''' Students are often unaware of university support services. For example, the Center for Excellence in Writing provides support for written work, and several tutoring centers on campus provide academic success support and resources.<br /> <br /> '''Available resources on sexual assault:''' UB is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking. If you have experienced gender-based violence (intimate partner violence, attempted or completed sexual assault, harassment, coercion, stalking, etc.), UB has resources to help. This includes academic accommodations, health and counseling services, housing accommodations, helping with legal protective orders, and assistance with reporting the incident to police or other UB officials if you so choose. Please contact UB’s Title IX Coordinator at 716-645-2266 for more information. For confidential assistance, you may also contact a Crisis Services Campus Advocate at 716-796-4399.<br /> <br /> '''Counselling services:''' As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. These might include strained relationships, anxiety, high levels of stress, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, health concerns, or unwanted sexual experiences. Counseling, Health Services, and Health Promotion are here to help with these or other concerns. You learn can more about these programs and services by contacting: <br /> :Counseling Services: 120 Richmond Quad (North Campus), phone 716-645-2720<br /> :Health Services: Michael Hall (South Campus), phone: 716-829-3316<br /> :Health Promotion: 114 Student Union (North Campus), phone: 716- 645-2837</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=307 2026-08-22T18:58:07Z

<p>Phismith: </p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''In the next few weeksWe will be moving current Applied Ontology MS students who wish to switch to the PhD. No action needed on your part at this stage.'''<br /> <br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> Electives<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Ontology of Law (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 637 Ontology and AI (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective (Smith)<br /> <br /> *PHI 530:Ontology Engineering (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 570 Intelligence Analysis and Ontology (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI 635 Logic for Ontologists (Beverley)<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Mereology (Bittner)<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [[The World's Ontology Ecosystem]]</div>

Phismith https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=306 2026-08-22T13:17:19Z

<p>Phismith: /* UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program */</p> <hr /> <div>==UB Applied Ontology Master of Science and PhD Program==<br /> <br /> <br /> [https://www.buffalo.edu/cas/philosophy/graduate/ms.html Background information on the MS program]<br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/ How to apply] <br /> <br /> [http://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Graduate Handbook] (PhD sections will be released in September.)<br /> <br /> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m31RXQRtaRU&amp;t=1905s Program FAQ in Video Format]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''In the next few weeksWe will be moving current Applied Ontology MS students who wish to switch to the PhD. No action needed on your part at this stage.'''<br /> <br /> <br /> '''Courses for Fall 2026'''<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro-Fall-2026 Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI601: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Introduction_to_Philosophy_from_an_Ontological_Perspective Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI604: [[Ontological Engineering Fall 2026|Ontological Engineering]], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI489/579: [[Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering Fall 2026|Intelligence Analysis and Ontology Engineering]], University at Buffalo, Fall 2026<br /> <br /> *PHITUT596 [https://ontology.buffalo.edu/docs/UB-AO-Masters-Handbook.pdf Applied Ontology Internship]<br /> Electives<br /> <br /> *BMI501: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Survey of Biomedical Ontology] <br /> *BMI508: [https://medicine.buffalo.edu/departments/biomedical-informatics/education/masters/course-descriptions.html Biomedical Ontologies]<br /> <br /> <br /> '''Courses for Spring 2027 (Advance notice)'''<br /> <br /> *PHI XXX Ontology of Law<br /> <br /> *PHI 637 Ontology and AI<br /> <br /> *PHI 601:Introduction to Philosophy from an Ontological Perspective<br /> <br /> <br /> '''INTERNSHIPS'''<br /> <br /> Course credits can be awarded for participation in relevant internships, either funded or unfunded. Students can also apply [https://careerdesignstudio.buffalo.edu/blog/2024/12/30/get-paid-to-do-an-internship-at-a-non-profit-organization-2/ here] for funding support for unfunded spring internships.<br /> <br /> <br /> '''ARCHIVE'''<br /> <br /> Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI598: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/BFO-Intro Introduction to Basic Formal Ontology], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_and_AI Ontology and AI], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI637: [https://aowiki.nsm.buffalo.edu/index.php/Ontology_of_Economics Ontology of Economics], University at Buffalo, Spring 2026<br /> <br /> Summer 2026<br /> <br /> *PHI 605SEM-SMI: [[The World's Ontology Ecosystem]]</div>

Phismith