Emulating the ontogenetic intelligence of nature
The Unicist Ontology describes the nature and functionality of facts, ideas, individuals and things, regarded from their essential, causative / functional and operational aspects, erasing the existent barrier between the human arbitrary division of philosophy, science and action, and defining concepts that integrate them in a unified field. In the short or long run, living beings and their deeds are consistent with their nature.
The ontogenetic intelligence of nature defines the nature and functionality of an entity. The ontogenetic intelligence of nature is defined by a purpose, an active principle and an energy conservation principle that are integrated in their oneness defining the functionality of the entity. The active principle drives the evolution while the energy conservation principle sustains the purpose. The ontogenetic intelligence of an entity defines its intrinsic concepts that regulates its evolution.
The Unicist Ontology describes the nature and functionality of reality by emulating the ontogenetic intelligence of nature. Therefore, there is an ontological logic to understand the nature of reality. Nature is not a question of opinion. From a functional point of view, the nature of a specific reality is unique. That is why there can only be “one” unicist ontology of something.
This development made complex adaptive systems reasonable, understandable and predictable in those cases in which the structure of the intelligence that underlies their nature has been found. The research began in the field of social, economic and behavioral sciences. Then it evolved, driven by homologies with confirmed knowledge, towards life sciences and ended with physics to confirm the validity of the unified field.
The Unicist Ontology defines and describes the functionality of things. Its knowledge is needed to deal with adaptive entities. A metaphor clarifies this:
The cost of a glass is in its solid;
its value is in its hollow.
Its cost has no value.
Its value has no cost.
But both of them are within the glass.
The cost of a process is given by its operation;
its value is given by its functionality.
Operation has no value.
Functionality has no cost.
But both of them are within the process.
Introduction
Being influenced by the environment, the unicist approach went through a scientific and philosophic approach in its discovery process. The final “maturity” was achieved when it was established in the field of the research on adaptive systems using a complexity science approach.
Unicist ontology has an extreme difference with a philosophical approach. Its purpose is not to exert influence but to generate added value.
What it has in common with philosophy is the action of apprehending the nature of reality. But, being its objective the adding of value, it needs to have secure knowledge in order to produce added value.
It has to be said that in order to exert influence, which is the objective of philosophy, there is no need for the knowledge to be true. To exert influence it is necessary that the knowledge is believed. The functionality is a secondary issue.
An example of this aspect is Marxism. The dialectical approach of Marx is an aprioristic fallacy although it has been believed as being true for many years.
Comparison of Ontologies with the Unicist Ontology
Comparison of: | Ontology (Philosophy) Aristotle, Wolff, Kant and others | Ontology (Information Science) Gruber, Sowa, Arvidsson and others | Unicist Ontology (Complexity Sciences) Peter Belohlavek |
Functionality | It defines WHAT “things” are | It defines WHAT “things”are | It defines WHAT “things” are and WHY they work |
Purpose | Knowledge acquisition | Information and knowledge acquisition | Managing complex adaptive systems and adaptive processes |
Foundations | Discovery | Shared expert opinions | Ontogenetic Intelligence of Nature and discovery of functionalities |
Use in business | To apprehend reality | Artificial Intelligence and building of complex information systems | Manage human adaptive systems and adaptive processes |
Scope of application | Universal | Artificial Intelligence, Information Systems | Development of ontogenetic maps for the individual, institutional, business and social fields. |
Language used | Natural language | Web Ontology Language and others | Unicist Standard Language and natural language |
Results to be achieved | True knowledge | Valid knowledge and information | Value generation |
Evolution / Involution laws | Inexistent | Inexistent | Unicist laws of evolution |
Formalization model | Inexistent | Inexistent | Unicist double dialectical logic |
Functional structure | Inexistent | Based on shared validation | Emulating the ontogenetic intelligence of nature |
Mathematical validation | Inexistent | Inexistent | Following the Unicist logic |
Deals with | Ideas | Categories and objects | Functions, roles and objects |
Oneness | One ontology for each aspect of reality | Depending on the consensus of the expert opinions | One ontology for each functionality |
The generation of value is a basic condition for human adaptive behavior
The objective of the unicist ontology is to add value to the environment, which requires having secure knowledge. Therefore ideologies, which are the catalysts and “entropy inhibitors” of philosophies, are replaced by knowledge.
The maximal strategy to produce added value in an adaptive system requires the understanding of the essential and functional concepts in order to produce the necessary results.
This requires having the necessary foundations and the systemic and conceptual knowledge to apprehend the nature of reality.
The “minimum strategy” requires the management of the pre-concepts and the operational concepts. This requires having the necessary justification of the actions and the operational and analytical knowledge in order to put into action the secure knowledge.
The difference between the ontology based on western philosophy and the unicist ontology is that philosophers tend to establish “stagnated knowledge”, based on an ideology, in order to influence reality while the unicist ontology is a dynamic evolutionary and functional approach.
An individual necessarily begins with the pre-conceptual approach to reality because it is the less energy consuming way to deal with reality. If it works, there is no more need to consume more energy.
The evolution of the ontological capacity of individuals depends on the responsibility they are willing and able to assume.
Every functional reality has a unique ontological structure
The unicist ontology describes the nature of ideas, facts, individuals and things, regarded their essential aspects and their functional aspects. It erased the existent barriers between the human arbitrary division of philosophy, science and action, and integrated them in a unified field. In the short or long run, living beings and their deeds are consistent with their nature.
Considering its functionality, every specific reality and its nature is unique. Therefore the ontology of a complex system, regarded from a functional viewpoint is unique. There are no multiple ontologies for one functional reality. There are multiple operational ways to fulfill the purpose of its nature.
Functionality is implicit in unicist ontology, because it describes reality based on its functional nature. That is why unicist technologies, which result from unicist ontology’s applications, belong to the field of hard sciences.
Approaching complex systems requires the knowledge of its ontology. By knowing the ontology of a complex system, the system becomes reasonable, comprehensible and provable, and therefore it can be approached in scientific and operational terms.
Complex systems are open systems that determine the functionality of a unified field through the “conjunction” of objects and/or subsystems.
The unicist ontology of a reality has been understood when reality evolves according to its natural laws that are known. The unicist ontology cannot be measured in itself but it can be confirmed using destructive and non-destructive tests.
The unicist ontological approach implies the description of concepts. In living beings, the concepts of a living entity, that define their nature, are included within their biological system. On the other hand, external elements have extrinsic concepts, which are deposited by men.
When the ontology of a certain reality is apprehended, it describes the most basic human functionalities. This explains how these functionalities evolve.
- Operational concepts describe the functional aspects of a reality
- Functional concepts describe the evolution of a reality
- Essential concepts describe their essence in its oneness
Ontological research requires a high level of abstraction:
- Reasoning processes are used to approach the research of rational aspects.
- Emotions are used to approach the research of emotional aspects.
- Reflection is used to approach the research of ontological aspects.
The hypotheses proposed by any of these three types of researches are falsified through facts and by doing destructive and non-destructive tests.
The unicist ontology is the integrating element of the unicist approach. It integrates the solution of a complex problem, which is its purpose, with human action (unicist anthropology) to influence the context.
The Unicist Anthropology is a “unicist” ontological approach to anthropology. It integrates human behavior considering the individuals and the species. in its individual and social aspects. It is a conceptual approach to anthropology that allows forecasting the future in order to establish the context to generate value.
The unicist ontology is an approach that sustains the management of complex problems by researching their conceptual structures. Since this functional structure is unique, it requires establishing secure knowledge to influence complex problems.
The limit of objectivity depends on human’s capacity to approach complex realities.
History of the Unicist Ontology
The history of humanity demonstrates an endless technological development. Technological evolution is defined as a new way to produce more with less.
The ontological approach, that is today natural in the field of solutions for adaptive systems, (biology, information technology, conceptual engineering, etc) has been inherited from philosophy.
This inheritance was the easiest way to approach ontology, but at the same time it introduced a distortion in its use.
The unicist ontology opted for a different approach:
- it is based on the emulation of the intelligence that underlies nature.
- it approaches adaptive systems as a unified field in order to influence them in their oneness.
The origin of the philosophic approach
The purpose of western philosophy was developed in order to influence the environment. This is evident when one studies the history of Greek philosophers who were the ones who established the “milestones” of the western philosophy. Thus the nature of Western Philosophy can be described as:
The purpose of philosophy is to influence the environment. Therefore the philosophical activity seeks to apprehend the nature of reality and achieving the necessary knowledge to exert influence.”
The different segments of philosophical approaches try to change the world fostering new utopias to influence evolution.
The “maximal strategy” of philosophy is to apprehend the nature of reality to objectivize actions based on conscious foundations within the limits of a specific functional ideology.
The “minimum strategy” is given by having the necessary knowledge to develop justified actions sustained by an absolute ideology that makes the philosophy consistent.
The different philosophical schools are a consequence of the different orientations of their creators in order to influence reality. Philosophy doesn’t need to be real (true) in order to achieve the objective of exerting influence.
This was changed by the unicist approach. An ontological knowledge is not a matter of opinions, ideologies or beliefs. It is a matter of describing the essential functionality of reality that describes its nature.
The unicist ontology is based on the ontogenetic intelligence of nature. Therefore there is an ontological logic to understand the nature of reality. Nature is not a question of opinion. From a functional point of view, the nature of a specific reality is unique. Therefore there can only be “one” unicist ontology of something.