Advanced ontology

The course Advanced Ontology is designed to provide students with a systematic examination of the structures, methods, and theoretical frameworks that define contemporary ontological inquiry. By the end of the course, students will gain in-depth knowledge and expertise in ontology.
While maintaining a strong connection to classical metaphysical questions, the course will focus on current debates and developments within analytic ontology, including formal ontology, category theory, and domain-specific ontologies.
Students will be introduced to advanced terminology, distinctions, foundational categories of contemporary ontology and to the main strategies for constructing, analyzing, and comparing ontological frameworks. A special emphasis will be placed on the interdisciplinary role of ontology in relation to logic, epistemology, and applied contexts. Particular attention will be devoted to the ontology of medicine as a paradigmatic case of how philosophical categories and distinctions can be operationalized within scientific and biomedical domains.

Students will acquire the ability to:
- critically analyze arguments within the discipline;
- discuss and compare different philosophical positions in ontology;
- reflect on complex and articulated philosophical arguments, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses;
- take a position in the debates in ontology and propose arguments in support of it;
- communicate the results of their research effectively, also using multimedia techniques to represent information with possible applications in teaching;
- use relational, communicative and organizational skills also in highly complex contexts and in the management of group work;
- transmit the skills obtained also in non-specialist contexts;
- reflect on their own skills and evaluations;
- autonomously research the philosophical sources of a debate or a school of thought;
- independently investigate a philosophical position or theoretical thesis.