Toward a formalization of artifacts in GFO

Abstract

The General Formal Ontology (GFO) is a top-level ontology that is designed to formally describe different domains of reality. Most recent advancements within GFO have been made in defining its modules of space and material objects, defining its functions, and a module for integrated data semantics. In this paper, I further develop the GFO towards the integration of artifacts, which are material objects that are intentionally made for a certain purpose. I discuss recent advancements in artifact ontology in philosophy and formal ontology alike, and provide basic categories and axioms for artifact description in GFO, while considering existing work within its space module, object-process integration and function module. Keywords. Artifact Ontology, GFO, Material Object, Formalization