About the Workshop

There exists a long-standing philosophical and ontological tradition according to which potency precedes actuality. According to this view, the occurrence of an event can be understood as the realization or manifestation of potentialities inherent in the event’s participants. The world appears replete with entities that embody such potentialities – commonly referred to as “realizable entities” – with dispositions standing out as a paradigmatic example.

Dispositions are entities that inhere in other entities and determine their behavior under specific circumstances. They are intimately connected to the causal powers of objects and encompass a broad range of entities, including abilities, capabilities, tendencies, propensities, liabilities, and capacities. Typical examples include the fragility of glass (the disposition to break when struck), the hydrosolubility of salt (the disposition to dissolve in water), and the toxicity of a chemical substance (the disposition to harm an organism upon contact).

As bridges between the static and dynamic structures of the world – linking endurants/continuants to perdurants/occurrents – realizable entities have garnered significant attention within the Formal Ontology community. Current research explores their application in diverse domains, such as the analysis of diseases, biological functions, risks, probabilities, engineered artifacts, affordances, organizational capabilities, and social roles.

The purpose of POWERs is to turn the spotlight on this issue, providing a venue for researchers and practitioners to present their work on dispositions and other realizable entities, exploring their various perspectives. Information and computer scientists, philosophers, cognitive scientists, linguists, conceptual modelers, domain experts, and professionals from related disciplines are very welcome to participate.

Topics of Interest

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

• Formalization and Characterization

  • Formal models and logics for realizable entities (e.g., single- vs. multi-track dispositions, degrees of realization, disposition-based reasoning)

  • Connections between realizable entities and other ontological categories (e.g., qualities, events)

• Types and Categories

  • Distinction between dispositional and non-dispositional realizable entities

  • Status of core entities (e.g., roles, biological/artifactual functions) as realizable entities or not

• Applications

  • Domain-specific uses in biology, health sciences, industry, enterprise modeling, and beyond.

• Philosophical Foundations

  • The metaphysical vs. linguistic nature of the distinction between realizable and non-realizable (“categorical”) properties

  • Intrinsicness and extrinsicness of realizable entities

  • The relevance of the disposition/power distinction for formal ontology

  • Dispositions in accounts of causation

  • The role of blocks, finks, and antidotes in applied ontology

  • Dispositions as substitutes for laws of nature in ontology

Submissions

We welcome three types of contributions:

• Abstract for presentation only: 2-3 pages, 10-15 minutes presentation (not included in the proceedings);

• Short papers: 6-9 pages, 10-15 minutes presentation;

• Full research papers: 10-14 pages, 20-25 minutes presentation.

Submissions must be sent via Easychair (further detials coming soon).

All contributions must be submitted as a single PDF file and must adhere to the one-column CEUR template. Here are instructions from the How To Submit CEUR webpage:

“[…] we require that authors use the new CEURART style for writing papers to be published with CEUR-WS. The style is available from Vol-XXX. An Overleaf page for LaTeX users is available as template. […]

You can also download an offline version with the style files from http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-XXX/CEURART.zip. It contains the LaTeX CEURART style and also the ODT (LibreOffice) template file. Do not use Word for the ODT template. We require that the Libertinus font family is used in CEURART. Instructions on installing these fonts are found in the ODT template. […]”

Submissions including semantic artefacts, methodologies, softwares, etc, need to adhere to the FAIR guidelines.

Organization

Workshop Chairs

• Fabrício Henrique Rodrigues – University at Buffalo, USA

• Adrien Barton – CNRS, Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse (IRIT), France

Program Comittee

TBD