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Overview
General Formal Ontology (GFO)
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6 Basic Categories of Individuals
In this section we consider the most basic distinctions between individuals.
Individuals are entities that are not instantiable, they are divided into
space-time entities, concrete and abstract individuals. Concrete individuals
exist in time or space whereas abstract individuals do not.
Concrete individuals include this cup, or this hundred meter run, abstract
individuals include the real number  or the natural number  .
With regard to the relationship between individuals and time and space,
there is the well-known
philosophical distinction between endurants and processes.
An endurant is an individual that exists in time, but cannot be described as
having temporal parts or phases; hence it is entirely
present at every time-boundary of its existence and it persists
through time. Processes, on the other hand, are extended in time; they unfold
in time.
Subsections
Robert Hoehndorf
2006-10-18
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