Conceptualizing the World: Lessons from History Alexa T. McCray Harvard Medical School Boston, Massachusetts, USA mccra

1. Conceptualizing the World: Lessons from History Alexa T. McCray Harvard Medical School Boston, Massachusetts, USA mccray@bidmc.harvard.edu Workshop on Ontology and Biomedical Informatics Rome, April 29, 2005

2. Conceptualizing the World • Throughout history there have been many attempts by philosophers, scientists, and other scholars to • Identify and name salient items of the world • Organize these salient items in a conceptual structure that reflects the world as it is understood at the time

3. Conceptualization • “An abstract, simplified view of the world that we wish to represent for some purpose” (Gruber, 1995) • World can be as • Broad as the universe, or as • Narrow as a highly restricted domain, e.g., world of restaurant dining • Purpose can be theoretical or practical, or both

4. Thesis • It is necessarily the case that every conceptualization is biased • This is because representing, or categorizing, the world depends on two crucial factors • Purpose for which the conceptualization is created • World view of the designer • Depends on the state of general knowledge at the time and personal knowledge of designer

5. Bias • Bias is a predisposed tendency toward a certain point of view • Most often based on a particular system of beliefs • Every conceptualization is biased in • Choice of categories themselves • Depth or level of granularity chosen • Interrelationships that may or may not be made explicit

6. Bias • Bias is not necessarily bad, but it • Needs to be recognized • Needs to be made explicit

7. Subjectivity • “A correct pure philosophical ontology…must aspire to objectivity while remaining open-minded about the existence of subjective phenomena.” • “Conceptual analysis rarely succeeds in a vacuum, and we must take our insights where we can, often by addressing the practical applied problems in which the concepts are found working in their day jobs.” Jacquette, 2002

8. Useful Fictions • Since ultimate truth is not attainable, we should proceed “as if” the constructs we are creating are true, only in this way will science advance • “It must be remembered that the object of the world of ideas as a whole is not the portrayal of reality – this would be an utterly impossible task – but rather to provide us with an instrument for finding our way about more easily in the world.” Vaihinger, 1924

9. Philosophy • Fundamental notions of existence or being • Why there exists something, rather than nothing • Attempt to prove existence of supernatural being • Difficult enterprise • “The problems of pure philosophical ontology have seemed so deep or confused that philosophers who concentrate primarily on the concept of being as such have acquired an occasionally deserved reputation for obscurity and even incoherence” (Jacquette 2002)

10. Philosophy of Language • Philosophers, linguists, computational linguists • Debate over the nature and representation of meaning • Language • Medium in which conceptualizations represented • Closely tied to thought and human rationality • For some, language and thought are inextricably linked

11. Psychology • In quest to understand nature of cognition, some psychologists • Posit anatomical loci for certain semantic domains in the brain • High level distinction between • Natural kinds, e.g., plants and animals • Man-made objects, e.g., tools and vehicles • Lesions, disease processes, imaging techniques serve as evidence

12. Gainotti, 2004

13. NY Times, Medical Science, 1992

14. Topical Dictionaries • Entries organized by their meanings, rather than alphabetically by their form • “…the order of a topical dictionary is dependent on a certain philosophical understanding of the world … such dictionaries are liable to religious, ideological, political, scientific, or otherwise predetermined world views.” Hüllen, 1999

15. Biology • Taxonomies to represent biological knowledge • Many areas of disagreement even (especially) since the time of Linnaeus over • Naming of biological entities • Hierarchical arrangement • Formal, regulated, coding systems exist, e.g., International Code of Zoological Nomenclature

16. Coding Systems • Prescriptive systems • Regulate naming for some purpose, e.g., • Medicine • Billing, data comparability, information retrieval • Standards for thesaurus development • Provide ‘conceptual’ access points for retrieval • Rules for naming, for hierarchical arrangement, for inter-concept relationships

17. Computer Science • Artifical intelligence • Attempts to model domain of interest • Purpose • Achieve human-like computational processing • Build systems for, e.g., machine translation, information extraction, question answering, text summarization • Resultant artifacts • Frames, semantic networks, conceptual graphs, ontologies

18. Illustrative Historical Perspective • Conceptualizations have been created for: • Philosophical and scientific purposes • Philosophy of existence • Catalogue all that is known universally or in a domain • Philosophy of language • Practical purposes • Pedagogic • Standardization • Resulting conceptualization depends on • Purpose • Training and occupation of individual • Time in history

19. See last slide for photo attributions

20. Philosophy of Existence • Aristotle (384-322, Greek scholar) Categories • Purpose • Establish relationship between language, truth, knowledge, and reality • Serve as a guide for persuasive speech, rhetoric • Categories • Substance, Quantity, Quality, Relation, Place, Time, Position, State, Action, Affection

21. Universal Catalogue • Amenopĕ (~1200 BC, Egyptian scribe) Onomasticon of Amenopĕ • Purpose • “Beginning of the teaching for clearing the mind, for instruction of the ignorant and for learning all things that exist: what Ptah created, what Thoth copied down, heaven with its affairs, earth and what is in it, what the mountains belch forth…” • Categories • Sky, water, earth; Persons, court, offices, occupations; Classes, tribes, types of human beings; Towns of Egypt; Buildings, their parts, and types of land; Agricultural land, cereals and their products; Beverages; Parts of an ox and kinds of meat

22. Universal Catalogue • Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 636 AD, Bishop) Etymologiae sive Origines • Purpose • Bishop of Sargossa commissioned the work to contain “all that ought to be known” • Establish etymology of each word for its “true” meaning • Categories • Grammar (literature); rhetoric & dialectic; Four mathematical sciences (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy); Medicine: Law & chronology; Theology; Languages; Alphabetical list of words; Man and monsters; Animals; Universe; Earth; Buildings & fields; Stones & metals; Agriculture; War & amusements; Ships, buildings, garments; Utensils

23. Philosophy of Language • Nicodemus Frischlin (1547-1590, Educator) Nomenclator Trilinguis • Purpose • Teach people to think logically • Improve stylistic quality of language use • Categories • God • Nature: 1) universe, space, time, elements, 2) kingdoms of nature • Man: 1) rationality, 2) knowledge and labor, 3) society

24. Philosophy of Language • Jan Comenius (1592-1670, Educator) Janua linguarum reserata • Purpose • Theory of communication and thought • Learning a language means causing one’s mind to operate according to the structure of reality • Categories • Naturalia, the world as created by God • Artificialia, the world as created by man • Moralia, the way man treats the world with which he is entrusted • Spiritualia, everything concerned with religion

25. Philosophy of Language • John Wilkins (1614-1672, Bishop) An Essay toward a Real Character and a philosophical language • Purpose • Establishment of a universal language • “That the reducing of all things and notions, to such kinds of Tables, as are here proposed (were it as completely done as it might be) would prove the shortest and plainest way for the attainment of real Knowledge, that hath been yet offered to the World” • Categories • God and the universe • Substance - the four elements, the kingdoms of nature • Accident – quantity, quality, action, relation

26. Pedagogy • William Caxton (c. 1420-1491, Entrepreneur, Printer) Dialogues in French and English • Purpose • Foreign language learning for European commerce • “Corner the market” with translations • Categories • Invocation of Holy Trinity • Formulae for greetings • Objects – house & furniture, food, commerce • Offices, social ranks, names of professions, trades, crafts • Pilgrimage • Counting, money • Invocation of Holy Trinity

27. Standardization • Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869, Doctor, Intellectual) Thesaurus of English words and phrases • Purpose • Prescribe and regulate use of language • Some modern writers…have indulged in a habit of arbitrarily fabricating new words and a new-fangled phraseology, without any necessity, and with manifest injury to the purity of language.” • Aid to writing and speaking • “We seek in vain the words we need, and strive ineffectually to devise forms of expression which shall faithfully portray our thoughts and sentiments” • Categories • Abstract relations (existence, quantity, time…); Space (dimensions, motion…) ; Matter (inorganic, organic); Intellect (formation of ideas, communication of ideas); Volition (individual, intersocial); Affections (personal, moral, religious…)

28. Standardization • Melvil Dewey (1851-1931, Librarian, Entrepreneur) Decimal Classification • Purpose • Subject access • Hierarchical relationships among categories of knowledge are ‘natural’, and reflect way the human mind produces and uses knowledge • Prescribe and regulate library cataloguing systems • Categories • 0 General; 100 Philosophy; 200 Theology; 300 Sociology; 400 Philology; 500 Natural Science; 600 Useful Arts; 700 Fine Arts; 800 Literature; 900 History

30. Case Study: Biological Taxonomy • Linnaean system • Major writings • Systema Naturae (1735, 1758), Fundamenta Botanica (1736), Classes Plantarum (1738) • Purpose • Name and classify all living things, thereby gaining access to God’s wisdom • Method • Establish taxonomic ranks, or levels, i.e., Kingdom, Class, Order, Genus, Species • Binomial naming system • Assumptions • Once a taxon is created, all members share same essential properties • The number of genera is set once and for all in God’s original creation

31. Taxonomic Change • Influence of Darwin • On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1859) • “All true classification is genealogical” • Taxonomies are constantly being revised as new knowledge comes to light • In some cases, species need to be moved from one genus to another • Because of binomial system, this means that names need to be changed, too

32. Taxonomic Debates • “The debate among biologists concerning general schools and species concepts has been extensive and at times rancorous.” (Ereshefsky, 2001) • “The …controversy over the new naming system, known as ‘PhyloCode’, has pitted colleague against colleague, office mate against office mate … You’ve got people willing to throw down their lives on both sides.” (Science, 2001)

33. Conclusion • Throughout history there have been many attempts to conceptualize the world, or some part of it • Every conceptualization is biased by virtue of its purpose and the world view of its designer • This bias needs to be recognized, and may even be a “useful fiction”

34. Photo Attributions • Aristotle: http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/aris.htm • Comenius: http://www.apuritansmind.com/ChristianWalk/McMahonComenius.htm • Linnaeus: http://www.plantexplorers.com/Explorers/Biographies/ • Frischlin: http://www.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/philo/galerie/neuzeit/frisch.htm • Caxton: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~neils/renaissance/caxton.htm • Darwin: http://www2.lucidcafe.com/lucidcafe/library/96feb/darwin.html • Isidore: http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/sainti04.htm • Wilkins: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/wilkins/wilkins.html • Roget: http://www.picturesofengland.com/England/famous/Peter_Mark_Roget • Dewey: http://www.librarybureau.com/melvil.html • Egyptian scribe: http://www.touregypt.net/magazine/mag05012001/magf7.htm