Towards an Ontology of Representation

Abstract

In philosophy information is mainly discussed along with the notion of aboutness. In more practical communities, information is mainly addressed together with notions like data and knowledge. This paper proposes a different approach. We look at information (and related concepts) as roles played by representations. This view implies that the notion of representation is central for any ontological analysis of information and related concepts. The paper provides arguments for this new stand and discusses an ontological model of representation based on the systematic distinction between form and content. The broadness and flexibility of the proposed model is shown by discussing a list of variegated representation entities from music to procedure, from novel to painting. The paper also investigates the role of letters (characters) in natural language expressions, which turns out to be quite complex.