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22.07.2013

Vague region-based geometry and the formal ontology of material entities


Dr. Thomas Bittner, Department of Philosophy, Department of Geography, State University of New York at Buffalo

I argue that vague mereo-geometric relations such as close, near, far, etc. are critical ingredients of a formal ontology of material entities. Based on this motivation I present a mereo-geometry with vague distance relations. Using standard mereological relations, a sphere-predicate, and vague size relations such as roughly-the-same-size-as and negligible-in-size-with-respect-to, vague distance relations such as close-to, near-to, away-from, and far-away-from are defined and their logical properties are investigated.

In developing the formal theory, I draw upon work on order of magnitude reasoning in Artificial Intelligence.

Date: 26.05.2009

Time: 11:00 h

Location: Rotunde Cartesium, Enrique-Schmidt-Str. 5, Universität Bremen