Abstract: The Formal Ontology of Boundaries

Barry Smith
Achille C. Varzi

Moving within a realist perspective, we present a general typology of boundaries based primarily on an opposition between bona fide (or physical) and fiat (or human-demarcation-induced) boundaries. Cutting across this opposition are further oppositions in the realm of boundaries, for example between: complete and incomplete, enduring and transient, crisp and indeterminate, symmetrical and asymmetrical. The final part deals with formal aspects: two axiomatic theories of boundaries are presented, and the need for both is examined in some detail. The resultant framework is shown to have application above all for our understanding of contact, division, and separation.