About the Unreal

TL;DR

This paper proposes a structured, ontology-based framework for representing and reasoning about entities that do not exist or may never exist, addressing limitations of previous approaches and emphasizing practical, computationally feasible solutions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ontology-driven method for modeling non existent entities using type intersections, improving over traditional dummy or modal logic approaches.

Findings

The framework effectively models fictional and hypothetical entities.

It avoids computational inefficiencies of previous methods.

The approach aligns with Basic Formal Ontology principles.

Abstract

This paper introduces a framework for representing information about entities that do not exist or may never exist, such as those involving fictional entities, blueprints, simulations, and future scenarios. Traditional approaches that introduce "dummy instances" or rely on modal logic are criticized, and a proposal is defended in which such cases are modeled using the intersections of actual types rather than specific non existent tokens. The paper positions itself within the Basic Formal Ontology and its realist commitments, emphasizing the importance of practical, implementable solutions over purely metaphysical or philosophical proposals, arguing that existing approaches to non existent entities either overcommit to metaphysical assumptions or introduce computational inefficiencies that hinder applications. By developing a structured ontology driven approach to unreal patterns, the paper aims to provide a useful and computationally viable means of handling references to hypothetical or non existent entities.