Toward an ontology of products

Abstract: I distinguish two senses in which we speak of products: one is the sense in which we speak of types of products, the other is the sense in which we speak of the individual objects that are instances of those types. I argue that types of products have the same ontological status as that of stuffs, like water and gold, which have a pre-individual level of existence. Accordingly, the relationship between types of products and their instances is logically similar to the relation of constitution which holds, say, between gold and a ring made of gold. This approach allows us to regard types of products as concrete entities, having spatiotemporal properties and fits our commonplace idea of types of products better than the view that types of products are universal or abstract entities.

The semina is based on the paper "Towards an Ontology of Products", which is still in a draft version.

For OKKAM team members, the event will also be broadcasted through Marratech (Gold Room).