Metaphysics Vocabulary

Question 1

Ontology

Answer 1

• The branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being.
• Philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations.

“There is no art or discipline for which the nature of reality is a matter of indifference, so one ontology or another is always being assumed if not articulated.”

‘This particular official chooses not to be limited by scientific ontology.’

‘Plato’s ontology was contained in his theory of Ideas or Forms.’

• A set of concepts and categories in a subject area or domain that shows their properties and the relations between them.

‘what’s new about our ontology is that it is created automatically from large datasets’

‘In this case the batch process operates on the full ontology, that is 400,000 concepts and 1.5 million relationships between them.’

The application allows the users to inspect the ontology, make queries to it and propose changes.’

‘Cyc is an artificial intelligence project that attempts to assemble a comprehensive ontology and knowledge base of everyday common sense knowledge, with the goal of enabling AI applications to perform human-like reasoning.’

Question 2

Soma

Answer 2

The body as distinct from the soul, mind, or psyche.

Biology
The parts of an organism other than the reproductive cells.

Examples:
‘They discuss the importance of using this expanded system to increase the physician’s understanding of the complex interplay between the soma, the psyche and the social milieu of the patient.’

“The modifying effects of individual history and experience, and to the quirks of the organism that arise from heredity, environment, interactions within the soma as a whole.” Marilynne Robinson

Question 3

Provident

Answer 3

Making or indicative of timely preparation for the future.

‘she had learned to be provident’

“No laws, however stringent, can make the idle industrious, the thriftless provident, or the drunken sober.’’

“Impairments that seem to compromise the sense of self may be taken to demonstrate that it is rooted in the physical brain, that same fleshly monument to provident evolution that neuroscientits admire.” Marilynne Robinson

Related words: prudent far-sighted judicious shrewd circumspect forearmed wise sagacious sensible commonsensical politic cautious careful thrifty