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Overview

General Formal Ontology (GFO)

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9.3 Classification of Property Universals

It should be stated explicitly that values of property universals are not considered as specialisations of property universals. Properties themselves can be classified and subdivided in various ways. One natural way to classify perceptible properties is assigning them based on the way in which they are perceived. This leads to visible properties (like lengths and color), smells, tastes (e.g. sweetness, bitterness) and so on.

However, there are also more formal classification principles for properties, for instance, according to the categories of the characterized entities. The following subcategories of properties are preliminarily distinguished with respect to the categories their bearers belong to. Note that for each category a different subrelation of has-quality may be introduced, in order to integrate relationships that are fairly established.

• Qualities of material structures, e.g. the color of a ball,
• Qualities of processes, e.g. the average speed of an object's movement, running for half an hour, and
• Qualities of qualities, e.g. a color's hue or brightness.