Barry Smith

 

Graduate Seminar on Formal Ontology

 

Syllabus

 

All events listed below are compulsory.

The seminar will meet on Wednesdays 4-6pm unless otherwise indicated.

Readings listed below are available on the web at http://ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/courses02/fo.htm

 

Sep. 4: Introduction: Mereology , Dependence and Geospatial Ontology

Reading: Basic Tools of Formal Ontology
Ontological Tools for Geographic Representation

 

Sep. 5: (Thursday) 4pm Metaphysics talk by David Hershenov (Jointly with Philosophy Department Colloquium)

 

Sep. 11: Talk by Peter Forrest on Mereology and Time. (Jointly with Philosophy Department Colloquium)

Reading: Peter Forrest, “How innocent is mereology?”, Analysis 56 (3): 127-131 (1996).

 

Sep. 18: Truthmaking and the Semantics of Maps

Reading: Articles on Truthmakers

 

Sep. 25: Vagueness

Reading: A Unified Theory of Truth and Reference
Do Mountains Exist? Towards an Ontology of Landforms

 

Oct. 2: Granularity

Reading: A Theory of Granular Partitions

 

[Oct. 9 University Convocation: No meeting]

 

Oct. 16: Talk by Chuck Dement on: " The Ontology of Formal Ontology"

 

[Oct. 23 No meeting]

 

Oct. 30 Overview of the History of  Ontology
 

Nov. 6: 2pm “SNAP and SPAN”: Cognitive Science Colloquium Talk, 280 Park

Reading: Basic Formal Ontology

 

Nov 6: 4pm Discussion of "SNAP and SPAN"

 

Nov. 8 (Friday): 4pm Metaphysics talk by Berit Brogaard (Jointly with Philosophy Department Colloquium) (Reading to be announced)

 

Nov. 9 Day-long Saturday workshop on Formal Ontology with Berit Brogaard and Achille Varzi (Readings to be announced)

 

            9am Achille Varzi: " From Ontology to Metaphysics"

           

            10.45 am Berit Brogaard: "Identity and Proper Names"

 

            12.30 Pizza Lunch

 

            1pm Achille Varzi: "Ontology and Logical Form"

 

            3-5pm Barry Smith

 

Nov. 13 Final Lecture