A Foundational Ontology of Organizations and Roles

In this paper we propose a foundational ontology of the social concepts of organization and role which structure institutions. We identify which axioms model social concepts like organization and roles and which properties distinguish them from other categories like objects and agents: the organizational structure of institutions and the relation between roles and organizations. All social concepts depend on descriptions defining them, which are collectively accepted, and the descriptions defining the components of organizations, including roles, are included in the description of the organizations they belong to. Thus, the relational dependence of roles means that they are defined in the organizations they belong to.

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