International Workshop on Topological Ontology to be held on February 11-12,
2020, at the University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Donostia-San
Sebastian, Spain.
Geometry has played an important role in philosophy ever since the time of Plato.
Concepts borrowed from geometry, such as space, shape, size, continuity,
proximity and transformation, have been and remain an indispensable ingredient
of many philosophical considerations, as can be seen from such central
philosophical areas as ontology, epistemology and semantics.
Starting with the advent of Non-Euclidean geometries in the 19 th century, classical
geometry as a mathematical discipline has experienced an immense generalization
and expansion: one that has elevated it – under the name of topology – to being
one of the most important and actively researched areas within modern
mathematics. This prompts the question of whether topology – as the
contemporary form of geometry – could possess a relevance for questions of
contemporary philosophy similar to that which geometry itself had for classical
philosophy.
The aim of this workshop is to highlight and explore grounds for thinking that this
question of fundamental importance can be answered in the affirmative. More
precisely, it hopes to show that the concepts and techniques of modern topology
can be fruitfully employed when tackling problems in contemporary ontology and
metaphysics.
The workshop will focus specifically (but not exclusively) on the following issues:
topological aspects of part-whole relations (mereology, mereotopology); the
metaphysics of time, events and substance; topological aspects of concepts such as
causality, possibility and necessity; process ontology; identity, similarity and
change; qualities, forms and universals; and problems of
determinism/indeterminism.
Venue
Building: Facultad de Educación, Filosofía y Antropología, Avenida de Tolosa 70, Sala de Juntas (3rd floor)
Organizing and Scientific Committee
Janusz Kaczmarek (University of Lodz, Poland)
Thomas Mormann (University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Spain)
Frank Zenker (International Center for Formal Ontology, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland)
Bartłomiej Skowron (International Center for Formal Ontology, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland)
Institutional organisers
Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain
International Center for Formal Ontology, Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
Department of Logic, University of Lodz, Poland
