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This is the most complete and authoritative account of ontology available. It presents ontology in philosophy in ways that computer scientists are not likely to find elsewhere, and includes descriptions of innovative and possibly controversial topics.

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Ontology was once understood to be the philosophical inquiry into the structure of reality: the analysis and categorization of ´what there is´. Recently, however, a field called ´ontology´ has become part of the rapidly growing research industry in information technology. The two fields have more in common than just their name.

Theory and Applications of Ontology is a two-volume anthology that aims to further an informed discussion about the relationship between ontology in philosophy and ontology in information technology. It fills an important lacuna in cutting-edge research on ontology in both fields, supplying stage-setting overview articles on history and method, presenting directions of current research in either field, and highlighting areas of productive interdisciplinary contact.

Theory and Applications of Ontology: Philosophical Perspectives presents ontology in philosophy in ways that computer scientists are not likely to find elsewhere. The volume offers an overview of current research traditions in ontology, contrasting analytical, phenomenological, and hermeneutic approaches. It introduces the reader to current philosophical research on those categories of everyday and scientific reasoning that are most relevant to present and future research in information technology.

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Ontology: The Categorial Stance.- Particulars.- The Ontology of Mereological Systems: A Logical Approach.- Causation.- Actualism Versus Possibilism in Formal Ontology.- Dispositions and Response-Dependence Theories.- Properties.- Boundary Questions Between Ontology and Biology.- The Ontology of Perception.- Interactive Knowing: The Metaphysics of Intentionality.- The Role of Logic and Ontology in Language and Reasoning.- Ontologies in the Legal Domain.- Ontology in Economics.- Ontology and Phenomenology.- Phenomenology and Ontology in Nicolai Hartmann and Roman Ingarden.- Ontology and Methodology in Analytic Philosophy.- Hermeneutic Ontology.

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Roberto Poli (B.A. in sociology, with honors, Ph.D. on ontology for knowledge engineers, Utrecht) is editor-in-chief of Axiomathes (Springer), a peer-reviewed academic journal devoted to the study of ontology and cognitive systems, editor of Categories (Ontos), and member of the Academic Board of Directors of the Metanexus Institute, Philadelphia. His research interests include (1) ontology, in both its traditional philosophical understanding and the new, computer-oriented, understanding, (2) the theory of values and the concept of person and (3) anticipatory systems, i.e. system able to take decisions according to their possible future development. Poli has published four books, edited or co-edited more than 20 books or journal´s special issues and published more than 150 scientific papers. He teaches Applied Ethics and Futures Studies at the Faculty of Sociology and gives a course in Ontology at the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy, University of Trento.

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