The ontology is based on a theory of document acts proposed by Barry Smith and Reinach's theory of social acts and legal entities: Reinach, A. (1989), Sämtliche Werke. Texkritische Ausgabe, Edited by Karl Schuhmann and Barry Smith, München: Philosophia Verlag. Smith, B. (2008) “Searle and de Soto: The new ontology of the social world”, The Mystery of Capital and the Construction of Social Reality, B. Smith, D.M. Mark and I. Ehrlich, United States, Open Court., 35-52. Smith, B. (2012) "How to Do Things With Documents", Rivista di estetica, 50 (2/2012), LII: 179-198. However, there are some amendments from our side which are to be found in the documentation.
document act ontology
release version - 2025-08-27
definition
definition editor
term editor
imported from
realized in
this disease is realized in this disease course
this fragility is realized in this shattering
this investigator role is realized in this investigation
is realized by
realized_in
[copied from inverse property 'realizes'] to say that b realizes c at t is to assert that there is some material entity d & b is a process which has participant d at t & c is a disposition or role of which d is bearer_of at t& the type instantiated by b is correlated with the type instantiated by c. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [059-003])
Paraphrase of elucidation: a relation between a realizable entity and a process, where there is some material entity that is bearer of the realizable entity and participates in the process, and the realizable entity comes to be realized in the course of the process
realizes
d socio-legally revokes s if s participates in d and at the end of d s no longer exists. It is important to note that this going out of existence of s is complete and unlike the going out of existence for material entities which basically always are transformed into something else. After the declaration nothing is left of the socio-legal generically dependent continuant in question.
legally revokes
d socio-legally transfers l if l participates in d and d has specified input (concretization of l)1 and specified output (concretization of l)2, where (concretization of l)1 and (concretization of l)2 are not identical.
obsolete_legally transfers
BFO relation takes precedence.
We anticipate BFO 2.0 including and defining this relation. When it does, we will obsolete this property and declare it equivalent to the BFO 2.0 relation.
'heart development' has active participant some Shh protein
x has participant y if and only if x realizes some active role that inheres in y
This may be obsoleted and replaced by the original 'has agent' relation
has active participant
my filling in an immigration form, a judge's signing and stamping a court order
A deontic declaration creating or revoking a deontic role by lawfully manipulating (signing, stamping, publishing) a document.
obsolete_deontic document act
A document that denotes some identity and is concretized by the bearer of some credential role.
identity document
A documented identity is the aggregate of all data items about an entity. Notice that a documented identity is not itself a document since a document is intended to be understood as a whole and data items about an individual are usually scattered across different documents.
is an aggregate of ICEs also an ICE? yes Is part_of the appropriate relation to use for data items and documented identities?
documented identity
I order a beer and the bartender authenticates my age by looking at my DOB on my driver's license. I sign into my email account, and the system authenticates my permission to read the email by checking the password I enter against my password listed in the database.
Authentication is the act of checking or verifying an identity claim (that is either tacit or explicit).
authentication
A role that inheres in a concretization of an identity document and is realized by an authentication process.
Amanda Hicks
credential role
obligor role
Sam's obligor role realized by him taking Nigel to lunch after promising to do so; Sarah's obligor role realized by paying the purchase price to Layla after signing the contract specifying that she is buying a piece of land from Layla.
A role that is the specified output of an obligation generating social act and that is realized by it's bearer being the providing part of a process that fulfills the previously agreed upon requirements.
obsolete obligor role
obligee role
Nigel's obligee role realized by Sam taking him out for lunch after Sam so promised; Layla's obligee role realized by receiving the money after signing a contract in which Sarah obtained a piece of land in exchange for a specified sum of money.
A role that is the specified output of an obligation generating social act and that is realized by it's bearer being the receiving part of a process that fulfills the previously agreed upon requirements.
obsolete obligee role
Tammy's owner role with regards to the house on 234 Evergreen Terrace; Walter's owner role with regards to the intellectual property on his movie script
A role in a human social process that, when it is realized, is realized when the bearer exercises control over some entity, where this control is permitted by one or more deontic roles, which this role has a continuant part.
OBIB/ICO community
owner role
obsolete_claim
deontic document act
A social act creating, revoking or transferring a socio-legal generically dependent continuant or a role by validating (signing, stamping, publishing) a document.
obsolete_document act
Colonel Klink giving Sergeant Schultz an order, Jake promising Jill to take her to the junior prom
A planned process that is carried out by a conscious being or an organization, and is self-generated, directed towards another conscious being or an aggregate of conscious beings, an organization or an aggregate of organizations, and that is in need of being perceived.
The phrase "in need of being perceived" does not imply that only planned processes that are in fact perceived can be social acts. Reinach clarifies that by exemplifying these matters for commands: "The command is according to its essence in need of being heard (vernehmungsbedürtig". It can of course happen that commands are given without being heard. Then they fail to fulfil their purpose. They are like thrown spears which fall to the ground without hitting their target." (A. Reinach: The Apriori Foundations of the Civil Law." Edited by J. Crosby, Heusenstamm: ontos Verlag, 2012). Reinach clearly does not imply that a command that does not fulfill its prupose would not be a command. Thanks to W.R. Hogan for finding the Reinach quote.
social act
the claim of a piece of land, the obligation to pay rent to the owner of a rental property
Socio-legal generically dependent continuants are generically dependent continuants that come into existence through social acts and that if they get concretized are concretized as realizable entities.
obsolete_socio-legal generically dependent continuant
deontic declaration
my consenting verbally to buy a used TV set for $ 500, John Robie's taking of Mrs. Steven's jewels, Jane Doe's revoking of informed consent over the phone, John Doe signing an employment contract.
A social act that brings about, transfers or revokes a socio-legal generically dependent continuant or brings about or transforms a role. Declarations do not depend on words spoken or written, but sometimes are merely actions, for instance the signing of a document.
Mathias Brochhausen
declaration
status function declaration
obsolete_deontic declaration
A role that is either the specified output of an obligation generating social act or the concretization of a transferable obligation and that is realized by it's bearer being the providing part of a process that fulfills the previously agreed upon requirements.
A document that is intended to be the specified input in a document act. It has a plan specification as a part that specifies the intended socio-legal entities that are created through the document (objective specification) and the way in which the document act is to be performed (by signing, by stamping, etc.) (action specification).
document act input document
Jane Doe's power role that is realized by her creating the duty holder role for a trauma medical director to report to the Board of Trustees, John Doe's claimant role that is realized by him taking posession of the the house he just bought.
A role that inheres in an agent and which is externally grounded exclusively in the normative expectations that other agents within a social context have concerning how that agent should behave or is allowed to behave.
Deontic roles are purely the roles based on deontic expectations (hence the word "exclusively" in the definition). They are not meant to represent all social roles that come with deontic expectations, e.g., police officer or trauma surgeon.
Neil Otte
deontic role
A social act that creates or revokes a deontic role.
obsolete_obligation
A deontic role that inheres in an agent A, that mutually depends on the existence of a duty holder role borne by agent B, and that specifies B doing or abstaining from C, or providing or surrendering C to A.
Hohfeld, WN: Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning. Yale University Press, 1919.
Claimant roles can either be discharged by one act of fulfilling a duty (e.g. when I pay back $5 owed to a friend) or they can remain intact and require ongoing adhering to a duty. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rights/#FormRighHohfAnalSyst discuss the claim of a child to freedom from abuse. That claim remains in existence and the duty to not abuse the child needs to be continuously be acted upon, by a multitude of agents (which all have a duty holder role). This claim is mutually dependent on the duty to abstain from abusing the child.
claimant role
The role borne by a human being, an organization or an aggregate of either of both that is realized by being the active participant in a declaration.
obsolete_declaration executive role
the role borne by the US Citizen and Immigration Service realized by providing the template form for entering the US as a non-resident alien, the role of a guideline committee in putting together a clinical guideline
The role of a human being or an aggregate of human beings preparing the initial document to undergo a document act, thus creating a socio-legal generically dependent continuant.
not that the "template" does not need to be a template at all. It can be a document that is getting stamped and signed and by these acts creating some socio-legal generically dependent continuants.
obsolete_document template creator role
A deontic role that inheres in an agent A, that mutually depends on the existence of a claimant role borne by agent B, and that specifies A doing or abstaining from some acition C, or providing or surrendering C to B.
duty holder role
The role of a human being or an aggregate of human beings concretizing a claim.
obsolete_claimant role
The role of a human being or an aggregate of human beings concretizing an obligation.
obsolete_obligator role
A deontic role that inheres in an agent A, that specifies that no agent B bears a claimant role against A doing C.
privilege holder role
me as a bearer of a spouse role, which participates in a document act, John Doe as bearer of a debtor role, which participates in a document act
The human being or organization or aggregate of any of the aforementioned that is the bearer of a concretization of a socio-legal generically dependent continuant brought about by or transferred in a specific document act.
obsolete_declaration target
The role of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service realized by the creation of an immigration form that is being filled in, the role of a national professional association realized by the creation of a clinical guideline that is to be certified
A role that inheres in a human being or organization or aggregate of any of the aforementioned that prepares a document that is the specified input to a document act and is the input document of a document act.
document act template creator role
A power role inhering in a human being or an organization or an aggregate of any of the aforementioned that is realized by the bearer being the agent in a deontic declaration.
declaration performer role
deontic declaration performer role
A deontic role that, if realized, is realized by its bearer’s creating, altering, or annulling some deontic role.
power role
obsoleted_document act target
a judge's role of signing a court order
A role inhering in a human being or an organization or an aggregate of any of the aforementioned that is realized by the bearer being the agent in a document act.
document act performer role
A role that is either the specified output of an obligation generating social act or the concretization of a transferable obligation and that is realized by it's bearer being the receiving part of a process that fulfills the previously agreed upon requirements.
Sarah Bost
obsolete_obligee role
obsolete_obligor role
A social act that postulates a socio-legal fact for a specified group of people or organizations.
enactment
standing declaration
John Judkins
Homo sapiens
organization
PMID: 16353909.AAPS J. 2005 Sep 22;7(2):E274-80. Review. The joint food and agriculture organization of the United Nations/World Health Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives and its role in the evaluation of the safety of veterinary drug residues in foods.
An organization is a continuant entity which can play roles, has members, and has a set of organization rules. Members of organizations are either organizations themselves or individual people. Members can bear specific organization member roles that are determined in the organization rules. The organization rules also determine how decisions are made on behalf of the organization by the organization members.
BP: The definition summarizes long email discussions on the OBI developer, roles, biomaterial and denrie branches. It leaves open if an organization is a material entity or a dependent continuant, as no consensus was reached on that. The current placement as material is therefore temporary, in order to move forward with development. Here is the entire email summary, on which the definition is based: 1) there are organization_member_roles (president, treasurer, branch editor), with individual persons as bearers 2) there are organization_roles (employer, owner, vendor, patent holder) 3) an organization has a charter / rules / bylaws, which specify what roles there are, how they should be realized, and how to modify the charter/rules/bylaws themselves. It is debatable what the organization itself is (some kind of dependent continuant or an aggregate of people). This also determines who/what the bearer of organization_roles' are. My personal favorite is still to define organization as a kind of 'legal entity', but thinking it through leads to all kinds of questions that are clearly outside the scope of OBI. Interestingly enough, it does not seem to matter much where we place organization itself, as long as we can subclass it (University, Corporation, Government Agency, Hospital), instantiate it (Affymetrix, NCBI, NIH, ISO, W3C, University of Oklahoma), and have it play roles. This leads to my proposal: We define organization through the statements 1 - 3 above, but without an 'is a' statement for now. We can leave it in its current place in the is_a hierarchy (material entity) or move it up to 'continuant'. We leave further clarifications to BFO, and close this issue for now.
organism
animal
fungus
plant
virus
A material entity that is an individual living system, such as animal, plant, bacteria or virus, that is capable of replicating or reproducing, growth and maintenance in the right environment. An organism may be unicellular or made up, like humans, of many billions of cells divided into specialized tissues and organs.
10/21/09: This is a placeholder term, that should ideally be imported from the NCBI taxonomy, but the high level hierarchy there does not suit our needs (includes plasmids and 'other organisms')
13-02-2009: OBI doesn't take position as to when an organism starts or ends being an organism - e.g. sperm, foetus. This issue is outside the scope of OBI.
WEB: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organism
An object aggregate of organisms.
Any arbitrary collection of organisms. They need not be of the same taxonomic class.
collection of organisms
An object aggregate all of whose components are human beings.
collection of humans
An aggregate of organizations that have some feature in common, but is not itself an organization.
An object aggregate that is not itself an organization and whose members are only organizations that have some feature in common
William R. Hogan
William R. Hogan Amanda Hicks
It is often convenient to group organizations together that otherwise might not even interact with one another.
aggregate of organizations
A role that inheres in some entity that is realized in a social act.
Matthew Diller
Previous definition: A role played by an entity in human social processes.
role in human social processes