Ontic
Encyclopedia
In philosophy
, ontic (from the Greek
, genitive : "of that which is") is physical, real or factual existence.
"Ontic" describes what is there, as opposed to the nature or properties of that being. To illustrate:
, determinism
, causation
, and stochasticity
. He explains that "ontic states describe all properties of a physical system exhaustively. ('Exhaustive' in this context means that an ontic state is 'precisely the way it is,' without any reference to epistemic knowledge or ignorance.)"
In an earlier paper, Atmanspacher portrays the difference between an epistemic perspective of a system
, and an ontic perspective:
philosopher Roy Bhaskar
, who is closely associated with the philosophical movement
of Critical Realism
writes:
Writing in the Bhaskar mailing list archive, Ruth Groff offers this expansion of Bhaskar's note above:
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, ontic (from the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, genitive : "of that which is") is physical, real or factual existence.
"Ontic" describes what is there, as opposed to the nature or properties of that being. To illustrate:
- Roger BaconRoger BaconRoger Bacon, O.F.M. , also known as Doctor Mirabilis , was an English philosopher and Franciscan friar who placed considerable emphasis on the study of nature through empirical methods...
, observing that all languages are built upon a common grammar, stated that they share a foundation of ontically anchored linguistic structures. - Martin HeideggerMartin HeideggerMartin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
posited the concept of Sorge, or caring, as the fundamental concept of the intentional beingIntentionalityThe term intentionality was introduced by Jeremy Bentham as a principle of utility in his doctrine of consciousness for the purpose of distinguishing acts that are intentional and acts that are not...
, and presupposed an ontological significance that distinguishes ontologicalOntologyOntology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations...
being from mere "thinghood" of an ontic being. He uses the GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
word "DaseinDaseinDasein is a German word famously used by Martin Heidegger in his magnum opus Being and Time, which generally translates to being in its ontological and philosophical sense Dasein is a German word famously used by Martin Heidegger in his magnum opus Being and Time, which generally translates to...
" for a being that is capable of ontology, that is, recursively comprehending propertiesProperty (philosophy)In modern philosophy, logic, and mathematics a property is an attribute of an object; a red object is said to have the property of redness. The property may be considered a form of object in its own right, able to possess other properties. A property however differs from individual objects in that...
of the very fact of its own Being. - Nicolai HartmannNicolai Hartmann-Biography:Hartmann was born of German descent in Riga, which was then the capital of the Russian province of Livonia, and which is now in Latvia. He studied Medicine at the University of Tartu , then Philosophy in St. Petersburg and at the University of Marburg in Germany, where he took his Ph.D....
distinguishes among ontology, ontics and metaphysics: (i) ontology concerns the categorical analysis of entities by means of the knowledge categories able to classify them. (ii) ontics refers to a pre-categorical and pre-objectual connection which is best expressed in the relation to transcendent acts and (iii) metaphysics is that part of ontics or that part of ontology which concerns the residue of being that cannot be rationalized further according to categories
Usage in philosophy of science
Harald Atmanspacher writes extensively about the philosophy of science, especially as it relates to Chaos theoryChaos theory
Chaos theory is a field of study in mathematics, with applications in several disciplines including physics, economics, biology, and philosophy. Chaos theory studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly sensitive to initial conditions, an effect which is popularly referred to as the...
, determinism
Determinism
Determinism is the general philosophical thesis that states that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. There are many versions of this thesis. Each of them rests upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and...
, causation
Causality
Causality is the relationship between an event and a second event , where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first....
, and stochasticity
Stochastic process
In probability theory, a stochastic process , or sometimes random process, is the counterpart to a deterministic process...
. He explains that "ontic states describe all properties of a physical system exhaustively. ('Exhaustive' in this context means that an ontic state is 'precisely the way it is,' without any reference to epistemic knowledge or ignorance.)"
In an earlier paper, Atmanspacher portrays the difference between an epistemic perspective of a system
System
System is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole....
, and an ontic perspective:
- Philosophical discourseDiscourseDiscourse generally refers to "written or spoken communication". The following are three more specific definitions:...
traditionally distinguishes between ontologyOntologyOntology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations...
and epistemology and generally enforces this distinction by keeping the two subject areas separated. However, the relationship between the two areas is of central importance to physicsPhysicsPhysics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
and philosophy of physicsPhilosophy of physicsIn philosophy, the philosophy of physics studies the fundamental philosophical questions underlying modern physics, the study of matter and energy and how they interact. The philosophy of physics begins by reflecting on the basic metaphysical and epistemological questions posed by physics:...
. For instance, many measurementMeasurementMeasurement is the process or the result of determining the ratio of a physical quantity, such as a length, time, temperature etc., to a unit of measurement, such as the metre, second or degree Celsius...
-related problems force us to consider both our knowledgeKnowledgeKnowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
of the states and observables of a systemSystemSystem is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole....
(epistemic perspective) and its states and observables, independent of such knowledge (ontic perspective). This applies to quantum systemsQuantumIn physics, a quantum is the minimum amount of any physical entity involved in an interaction. Behind this, one finds the fundamental notion that a physical property may be "quantized," referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This means that the magnitude can take on only certain discrete...
in particular.
Usage in philosophy of critical realism
The BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
philosopher Roy Bhaskar
Roy Bhaskar
Roy Bhaskar is a British philosopher, best known as the initiator of the philosophical movement of Critical Realism.-Early life:Bhaskar was born in Teddington, London, the elder of two brothers...
, who is closely associated with the philosophical movement
Cultural movement
A cultural movement is a change in the way a number of different disciplines approach their work. This embodies all art forms, the sciences, and philosophies. Historically, different nations or regions of the world have gone through their own independent sequence of movements in culture, but as...
of Critical Realism
Critical realism
In the philosophy of perception, critical realism is the theory that some of our sense-data can and do accurately represent external objects, properties, and events, while other of our sense-data do not accurately represent any external objects, properties, and events...
writes:
- "I differentiate the 'ontic' ('ontical' etc.) from the 'ontological'. I employ the former to refer to
-
- whatever pertains to being generally, rather than some distinctively philosophical (or scientific) theory of it (ontology), so that in this sense, that of the ontic1, we can speak of the ontic presuppositions of a work of art, a jokeJokeA joke is a phrase or a paragraph with a humorous twist. It can be in many different forms, such as a question or short story. To achieve this end, jokes may employ irony, sarcasm, word play and other devices...
or a strike as much as a theory of knowledge; and, within this rubricRubricA rubric is a word or section of text which is traditionally written or printed in red ink to highlight it. The word derives from the , meaning red ochre or red chalk, and originates in Medieval illuminated manuscripts from the 13th century or earlier...
, to - the intransitive objectObject (philosophy)An object in philosophy is a technical term often used in contrast to the term subject. Consciousness is a state of cognition that includes the subject, which can never be doubted as only it can be the one who doubts, and some object or objects that may or may not have real existence without...
s of some specific, historically determinate, scientific investigation (or set of such investigations), the ontic2.
- whatever pertains to being generally, rather than some distinctively philosophical (or scientific) theory of it (ontology), so that in this sense, that of the ontic1, we can speak of the ontic presuppositions of a work of art, a joke
- "The ontic2 is always specified, and only identified, by its relation, as the intransitive object(s) of some or other (denumerable set of) particular transitive process(es) of enquiry. It is cognitive process-, and level-specific; whereas the ontological (like the ontic1) is not."
Writing in the Bhaskar mailing list archive, Ruth Groff offers this expansion of Bhaskar's note above:
- "'ontic2' is an abstract way of denoting the object-domain of a particular scientific area, field, or inquiry. E.g.: molecules feature in the ontic2 of chemistry. He's just saying that the scientific undertaking ITSELF is not one of the objects of said, most narrowly construed, immediate object-domain. So chemistryChemistryChemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
itself is not part of the ontic2 of chemistry."