Top-level ontological categories

Abstract Philosophers have spent 25 centuries debating ontological categories. Their insights are directly applicable to the analysis, design, and specification of the ontologies used in knowledge-based systems. This paper surveys some of the ontological questions that arise in artificial intelligence, some answers that have been proposed by various philosophers, and an application of the philosophical analysis to the clarification of some current issues in AI. Two philosophers who have developed the most complete systems of categories are Charles Sanders Peirce and Alfred North Whitehead. Their analyses suggest a basic structure of categories that can provide some guidelines for the design of AI systems.