Are Objects Ontologically Dependent on Processes?

Antony Galton

Keynote talk, Symposium on Cognition and Ontologies (CAOS 2017), extended abstract published in Joanna Bryson, Marina de Vos and Julian Padget (editors), Proceedings of AISB Annual Convention 2017, Bath 18-21 April 2017, pages 215-7

Abstract

Traditional substance ontology, which traces its roots at least as far back as Aristotle, holds that the primary existents are substances, or objects, and that dynamic entities such as processes and events are ontologically dependent on the objects which enact or participate in them. By contrast, a persistent but minority trend in ontology has advocated processes as the primary existents, understanding objects to be dependent entities arising from certain configurations of processes that manifest sufficient stability over a period of time. In this talk I shall present a number of considerations which seem to favour the process ontology over the substance ontology, and consider the use of image schemas as a way of understanding how the notion of an object can arise in a world that is fundamentally constituted by processes.


Antony Galton
Last modified: Wed May 3 2017