Foundations of information technology based on Bunge’s systemist philosophy of reality

Abstract

General ontology is a prominent theoretical foundation for information technology analysis, design, and development. Ontology is a branch of philosophy which studies what exists in reality. A widely used ontology in information systems, especially for conceptual modeling, is the BWW (Bunge–Wand–Weber), which is based on ideas of the philosopher and physicist Mario Bunge, as synthesized by Wand and Weber. The ontology was founded on an early subset of Bunge’s philosophy; however, many of Bunge’s ideas have evolved since then. An important question, therefore, is: do the more recent ideas expressed by Bunge call for a new ontology? In this paper, we conduct an analysis of Bunge’s earlier and more recent works to address this question. We present a new ontology based on Bunge’s later and broader works, which we refer to as Bunge’s Systemist Ontology (BSO). We then compare BSO to the constructs of BWW. The comparison reveals both considerable overlap between BSO and BWW, as well as substantial differences. From this comparison and the initial exposition of BSO, we provide suggestions for further ontology studies and identify research questions that could provide a fruitful agenda for future scholarship in conceptual modeling and other areas of information technology.

Informing Possible Future Worlds

“…The gap between IS and physics is very large, but while writing this paper I learned that Mario Bunge used ideas in particle physics as an inspiration for trying to develop a new system-oriented ontology that might supplant the thing-oriented BWW ontology. Lukyanenko et al (2021) called that incomplete effort the Bunge Systemist Ontology (BSO) to differentiate it from the BWW ontology. Rough analogies with topics and issues in physics proved useful in developing the FDTP, but it would be silly to make too much of any imagined similarity between ideas in IS and ideas describing the behavior of subatomic particles.…”

Conceptual modelling for life sciences based on systemist foundations

“…Much of Bunge's influence has been via the BWW ontology, which has made substantial contributions to the theory and practice of information systems development and conceptual modelling. Lukyanenko et al [99] further propose a new ontology, called the Bunge Systemist Ontology (BSO), based on the writings of Bunge later in his life (e.g., [36,37,40,41], which is much more grounded in the systemist thinking than his earlier works (e.g., [31,33,34].…”

“…According to Bunge, and BSO, the world is made of systems. Lukyanenko et al [99] provide three explanations of this original ontological position.…”

Trust in artificial intelligence: From a Foundational Trust Framework to emerging research opportunities

“…Bunge continues, that reality is made of systems "is a programmatic hypothesis found fertile in the past, because it has stimulated the search for complexities hidden under simple appearances" (Bunge, 2017, p. 174; see further discussion in: Lukyanenko, Storey, & Pastor, 2021b). Ludwig von Bertalanffy, the founder of systems theory, puts forward a similar argument: contemporary advances in sciences can be in part attributed to the adoption of the systems view of phenomena (von Bertalanffy, 1968).…”