Organizing the principal concepts of upper ontology

Abstract

In both engineering and philosophical ontologies, there is no doubt about the importance of the two axes of Independent-Dependent (I-D axis) and Continuant-Occurrent (C-O axis) in their upper categories. However, the way these two axes are handled is not consistent among existing upper ontologies. In this study, we first showed that upper ontologies can be classified into three types based on the priority of the treatment of the two axes: C-O axis priority type, I-D axis priority type, and both axes equivalent type. Next, we clarified that the C-O axis priority type does not distinguish between Independent and Dependent of Occurrent, while the I-D axis priority type does not distinguish between Independent and Dependent of Occurrent.