The Philosophy of Geo-Ontologies

Timothy Tambassi is an ICUB postdoctoral fellow at the Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (ICUB), Romania, an honorary research fellow in Archival, Bibliographical and Library Sciences at the University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy and in History of Philosophy at the University of Parma, Italy. Moreover, he was a visiting scholar in Philosophy of Geography at the Columbia University in the City of New York, USA and at the University of Milan, Italy, a research fellow in Computer Science at the University of Eastern Piedmont, a teaching assistant in History of Political Philosophy at the University of Parma and an honorary visiting research Associate at Durham University, UK. He obtained his Ph.D. in Philosophy and Human Science at the University of Verona, Italy with a dissertation entitled "The Riddle of Reality: E.J. Lowe's Metaphysics, Ontology, and Philosophy of Mind". Currently, his main research interests include Metaphysics, Formal Ontology, Philosophy of Geography, Geo-ontologies and the Philosophy of E.J. Lowe. He is the editor-in-chief of the philosophical journal Quaderni della ginestra and a member of the editorial board of La società degli individui, Asia-Pacific Studies, Canadian Social Science, Philosophy Study, Filozofski pogledi/Philosophical Views and a member of the international editorial board of Calamò.

Introduction.- Part I. The Ontological Background.- Ontologies in Computer Science: a brief overview.- From the Ontological Turn to the Ontology of Geography.- Common Sense Conceptualizations and Systems of Objects.- Part II. Geographical Entities, Boundaries and Spatial Representation.- Experiments and Results.- From a Speculative Perspective: Geographic Entities and Boundaries.- On Drawing (Different) Lines on a Map.- On the Ontological Status of Geographical Boundaries.- Spatial Representation and Ontological Tools.- Part III. From a Geographical Perspective: Spatial Turn, Taxonomies and Geo-Ontologies.- From the Spatial Turn to the Diffusion of Geo-ontologies.- The Problems of Existing Taxonomies.- A Geo-ontological Tri-Partition.- PART IV. Geo-ontologies, Digital Humanities and Ancient World.- Towards a Geo-ontology for the Ancient World.- Geography in Greek and Roman Culture.- Conclusion.