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.