An ontological analysis of risk in Basic Formal Ontology

TL;DR

This paper provides an ontological analysis of risk within the Basic Formal Ontology framework, proposing that risk is best modeled as a subclass of Role rather than Disposition, with implications for understanding risk in objects and processes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ontological characterization of risk as a subclass of BFO:Role, contrasting with previous views, and applies this to analyze risk in physical and mental processes.

Findings

Risk is modeled as a subclass of BFO:Role.

The analysis distinguishes risk from dispositions.

Application to objects and processes illustrates the model.

Abstract

The paper explores the nature of risk, providing a characterization using the categories of the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). It argues that the category Risk is a subclass of BFO:Role, contrasting it with a similar view classifying Risk as a subclass of BFO:Disposition. This modeling choice is applied on one example of risk, which represents objects, processes (both physical and mental) and their interrelations, then generalizing from the instances in the example to obtain an overall analysis of risk, making explicit what are the sufficient conditions for being a risk. Plausible necessary conditions are also mentioned for future work. Index Terms: ontology, risk, BFO, role, disposition