In this lecture, we will continue with the study of Aspects. Firstly, we will review the notions of qualities and their associated quality spaces (e.g., color, weight, electric charge), and demonstrate how they are modeled in terms of (Structured) Datatypes and associated constraints in OntoUML. Secondly, we will study another type of intrinsic aspects, namely, the notion of Modes. In particular, we will investigate the notion of relational or externally dependent modes. Furthermore, we will study the category of relators as aspects that are existentially dependent on multiple individuals. Finally, we will present a number of ontological distinctions among the categories of relations, demonstrating how a particular class of relations termed material relations are grounded on concrete entities (truthmakers), typically relators.

Learning goals: after this lecture you should be able to

Explain the categories of Qualities, Modes and Relators
Explain the ontological distinctions among relations according to UFO and their formal meta-properties
Explain the OntoUML primitives reflecting the distinctions above and the modeling rules on how they can be combined
Apply this fragment of OntoUML to design conceptual models containing ontologically consistent taxonomic structures
Critically Evaluate and Rectify the ontological consistency of representations of qualities, models, relators and relations in conceptual models

The recording of the lecture is available here . Slides are available here.

Materials

Guizzardi, G.; Masolo, C.; Borgo, S., In the Defense of a Trope-Based Ontology for Conceptual Modeling: An Example with the Foundations of Attributes, Weak Entities and Datatypes, 25th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER’2006), Arizona, USA, 2006. DOI: 10.1007/11901181_10.