Top-Level Categories of Constitutively Organized Material Entities - Suggestions for a Formal Top-Level Ontology
Figure 3
First order basic types of material entity.
A–C. The three different basic types of material entity that the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) currently distinguishes. If the distinction between fiat and bona fide boundaries is taken to be absolute across all levels of granularity, object aggregates are always demarcated by fiat boundariesimmat and thus always represent fiat wholes – but see the distinction between metric proximity, adherence and coherence and the distinction between clusters and groups in the text. D & E. Two additional basic types of material entity that are currently not recognized by BFO. With the exception of ‘object’, all types possess some fiat boundary and thus are fiat wholes. Fiat boundarymat: demarcates fiat parts of a material entity; fiat boundaryimmat: demarcates fiat parts of an immaterial entity (i.e. a hole).