This paper critically examines the relationship between Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) and the Common Core Ontologies (CCO), offering a comprehensive discussion of their theoretical foundations, design patterns, and implementation practices. The paper highlights BFO’s commitment to realism, perspectivalism, fallibilism, and adequatism, and illustrates how these principles guide the representation of domain-specific entities within CCO. The modular structure of CCO is analyzed, emphasizing its eleven component ontologies and the hub-and-spoke strategy that promotes semantic integration across diverse domains. The paper also engages with practical challenges in distinguishing between TLOs, MLOs, and domain ontologies, proposing heuristic and formal criteria for delineating their scope. Using a dataset from the US Federal Aviation Administration, the paper demonstrates CCO’s modeling capabilities, particularly in integrating design specifications and real-world data. The study concludes by underscoring the importance of aligning data quality and semantic interoperability in ontology engineering, and it calls for sustained methodological rigor and collaboration to advance the BFO-CCO ecosystem.
Information resources (General), Epistemology. Theory of knowledge
The article examines the transformational process in the philosophy of education driven by digitalization, which necessitates a critical re-evaluation of traditional epistemological and ontological categories. The study addresses the dichotomy between classical educational paradigms and emerging approaches that respond to digital innovations. This research aims to analyze the impact of digital technologies on the structure of knowledge, educational institutions, and cognitive interaction methods. It applies poststructuralist and relational analysis methods to conceptualize knowledge as a contingent and variable phenomenon. By employing a multi-discursive approach, the study demonstrates how digital media not only reshape the learning process but also alter the nature of knowledge itself. The relevance of this research is underscored by the context of epistemological relativism that arises in the era of educational virtualization.
The study finds that knowledge no longer operates as a static logos but takes on the form of a fluctuating, networked substance, interacting with the subject through multichannel simulations. Traditional educational hierarchies give way to hypertextual and multi-agent forms of knowledge transmission, where the authenticity and credibility of knowledge increasingly depend on dynamic algorithmic and simulacral constructs. The practical significance of this work lies in defining new axiological imperatives for education that focus on enhancing adaptability and critical reflexivity in the learner. The study proposes heuristic methods designed to foster cognitive resilience against informational entropy and to cultivate “flexible thinking” capable of navigating the evolving digital environment.
In conclusion, the study emphasizes that the philosophy of education in the age of digital expansion undergoes profound ontological and epistemological changes, transforming the learning process into an interactive and multidimensional phenomenon. Knowledge loses its stability, evolving into a series of cognitive impulses that continually shift in form and structure. This evolution calls for the formation of a new type of educational subject, capable of integrating and critically navigating virtually dispersed informational environments. Accordingly, the article offers a foundational analysis and innovative approaches to the philosophy of education, reflecting the integration of digital technologies as the basis of the contemporary cognitive process, and highlights the importance of harmonizing technocratic and humanistic elements in the educational discourse.
The essential proposal of this text is that psychedelic-induced metaphysical experiences should be integrated and evaluated with recourse to metaphysics. It will be argued that there is a potential extra benefit to patients in psychedelic-assisted therapy if they are provided with an optional, additional, and intelligible schema and discussion of metaphysical options at the integrative phase of the therapy. This schema (the “Metaphysics Matrix”) and a new Metaphysics Matrix Questionnaire (“MMQ”) stemming therefrom will be presented, the latter of which can also be used as an alternative or additional tool for quantitative measurement of psychedelic experience in trials. Metaphysics is not mysticism, despite some overlap; and certainly not all psychedelic experience is metaphysical or mystical—all three terms will be defined and contrasted. Thereafter psychedelic therapy will be presented and analysed in order to reveal the missing place for metaphysics. Metaphysics, with epistemology (theory of knowledge) and axiology (ethics and aesthetics), is a defining branch of Philosophy. Metaphysics, in contrast to mysticism, is considered to be based on argument rather than pure revelation. Thus, in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy one sees here the potential bridge between reason-based philosophy and practical therapy—or, more broadly, with psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy there is the potential and mutually beneficial fusion of philosophy with practical science.
In the relatively abundant bibliography on archaeological theory and epistemology the impact of archaeological practice on archaeological epistemology has remained somehow less explored despite the fact that in the last three decades archaeology has undergone radical changes in practice. We would like to point to three interconnected trends: an exceptional increase in the amount of archaeological fieldwork, the fact that probably more than 90% of all field projects are in the domain of heritage protection, and that archaeology has become a data-driven discipline, producing new circumstances which challenge the traditional epistemological views and require social epistemological rethinking. This paper aims to explore some social epistemological aspects in current archaeological practice in Slovenia where two rather distinctive groups of archaeological researchers emerged, academic archaeologists and field professionals. The distinction between the two groups has grown since the late 1990s with the introduction of preventive archaeology, changes in legislation in heritage protection, and the development of the commercial sector in archaeology. These changes opened a series of questions on epistemic effects in new circumstances, e.g. how these two groups contribute to archaeological knowledge, how their modes of obtaining knowledge are structured and organized, what social factors condition these modes, and, least but not last, the question of forms of epistemic asymmetries.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities, Literature (General)
S. P. Zapariy, A. G. Samusenko, Yu. E. Vyazovichenko
et al.
Relevance. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic progressive neurodegenerative autoimmune disease of the central nervous system, affecting mainly people of working age and leading to disability. Since this disease is a frequent cause of persistent disability, the importance and at the same time insufficiency of research in the field of regional specific programs related to disability due to MS is noted. Aims. To study the dynamics and features of the formation of primary and repeated disability due to MS among various age groups of the population, taking into account gender characteristics and severity of disability in Moscow in 2014–2021. Materials and methods. The study used examination materials of persons over 18 years of age with MS, collected in an electronic database of medical and social expertise (ITU) of the Federal State Institution "ITU Main Bureau for Moscow", acts, protocols of ITU, static f-088/06 on the re-examination of RS. Results. The last 8 years have been characterized by a decrease in general disability due to MS, with a decrease in the number of persons recognized as disabled for the first time (VPI) and an increase in the number of persons re-recognized as disabled (PPI). There is a drop in the proportion of disabled people of the first and second disability groups with an increase in the third group. In the structure of VPI and PPI due to MS, persons of working age prevailed with a slight decrease in the group of PPI. The gender structure was dominated by female persons. Conclusion. The study of indicators of disability due to MS among various population groups in modern conditions is of great importance for monitoring the level of disability of patients and maintaining a socially active life of the patient.
Creativity by coping: imitating life as a work of imagination
Engineering biological systems is easily interpretable as a process of mere and cold replication, or even distortion, of the natural domain, since it is often linked to industry and built on the Cartesian assumption of human rationality’s control over a submissive nature. In this article, I approach living systems design from an alternative perspective, supporting its similarities with activities which are traditionally associated with creativity, like arts. I show that different kinds of creativity are deeply involved in copying, composing, and modifying life, focusing on two different levels: that of scientific modelling, recognisable by looking at biological circuits design, and that of actual building of new organisms of evolutionary interest, like the artificial bacterium JCVI-syn3.0.
Relevance. Coronaviruses and influenza viruses induce pandemics taking away many human lives and seeding social-economic chaos. Possibility to prognose pandemic features on characteristics of surface proteins of their pathogens is not investigated.Aim is to characterize the common features of the pandemic coronavirus S-protein and the pandemic virus influenza hemagglutinin in connection with the features of a coronavirus pandemic and influenza pandemics.Materials and method. For the bioinformatic analysis the protein sequences of pandemic coronavirus strains and pandemic influenza virus strains, influenza virus strains of 2017–2018 season and also influenza virus type B strains were used. In proteins an amino acid content, the sums of the charged amino acids and the.Results. It was found out that the increase of amount of the amino acids forming intrinsically disordered regions in the coronavirus S-protein S1 subunit and influenza virus H1 hemagglutinin HA1 subunit is characteristic of the pandemics with high morbidity and the increase of arginine and lysine with comparison with aspartic and glutamic acids in those proteins is peculiar to viruses inducing the pandemics with lower lethality.Conclusion. The features (morbidity and lethality) of the coronavirus pandemic and influenza virus pandemic are associated with the quantitative amino acids content of pandemic virus surface proteins.
Resumen. Reconstruimos desde Darwin los intentos por explicar los comportamientos de cooperación y conflicto humanos y su evolución; haciendo explícitas las diferentes “imágenes de naturaleza” que tenían los principales contendientes e implicados en las controversias que engendró este tema. Mostramos que esas imágenes tenían a menudo fundamentos ideológicos, además de ser sugeridas por observaciones (cargadas de teoría) sobre el comportamiento animal que fueron realizadas por naturalistas en entornos ecológicos específicos. Esas imágenes afectaron la comprensión de la “lucha por la existencia”, como condición necesaria para la evolución por selección natural, así como las formas en las que se construyeron los modelos para simular los comportamientos en juego, teniendo en cuenta los niveles en los que se supone actúa la selección.
Epistemology. Theory of knowledge, Science (General)
This article examines Kwasi Wiredu’s arguments on democracy and consensus. In Cultural Universals and Particulars, Wiredu presented consensual democracy as a better means of decision-making process than majoritarian democracy in traditional African life and governance. He defended this claim with two main arguments: (i) that consensus takes care of the interests of the minority, and (ii) that consensual democracy permits substantive representations. Contrary to Wiredu’s claim, this article argues that the implication or challenges of majoritarian democracy identified by Wiredu do not necessarily (i) undermine majoritarian democracy, and (ii) make Wiredu’s suggested decision by consensus a workable means of decision-making in present African society. Our aim in this paper is not to defend majoritarian democracy as a plausible position; rather, the bulk of the paper is devoted to a critical assessment of Wiredu’s defense of consensual democracy. The paper argues that at a certain level of discussion, Wiredu’s idea of consensus (consensual democracy) shares some similarities and also faces similar challenges to (majoritarian) democracy. The paper concludes that, logically speaking, democracy and consensus are not mutually exclusive.
This article provides the first English translation of Tanabe’s early essay, “The Limit of Logicism in
Epistemology: A Critique of the Marburg and Freiburg Schools” (1914). The key notion that the young
Tanabe seeks to define in relation to his detailed analyses of contemporary Neo-Kantian epistemology is the
notion of “pure experience” presented in Nishida’s philosophy. The general theory of epistemology shared
among the thinkers from these two prominent schools of philosophy in early 20th century Germany aimed to
eliminate the empirical residues in Kant’s theory of knowledge while opposing naïve empiricism and the
uncritical methodology of positive science. Their “logicistic” approach, according to Tanabe, seems to
contradict Nishida’s notion of pure experience, for it cannot allow any vestige of empiricism in its systematic
framework, which is specifically designed to ground scientific knowledge. Yet given that the Neo-Kantian
configuration of epistemology does not create the object of knowledge, it must face sensation or
representational content as its limiting instance. Thus, to ground a Neo-Kantian theory of knowledge while
taking account of this limit of logicism involves explaining their understanding of the unity of subject and
object in human knowing. For this, Tanabe argues, recourse to Nishida’s notion of pure experience is
indispensable.