Description and Aims

Since some decades, ontology is used for supporting semantic analysis, both in linguistics and computing. In both fields, this lead to intensive interdisciplinary discussions between these fields and philosophical ontology. This colloquium aims at providing an interdisciplinary forum for researchers from relevant disciplines such as linguistics, computing science, information science, and philosophy. It brings together instalments of two series of events:

• The Semantics and Philosophy in Europe (SPE) colloquia provides a forum for presenting research in the interface between linguistic semantics and various areas of philosophy (philosophy of language, philosophy of mind/cognition, metaphysics, and philosophy of mathematics). This year's colloquium Semantics and Philosophy in Europe (SPE13) wants to foster in particular the dialogue between applied ontology, as a semantic technology in computer science, and linguistics and philosophy.

• The newly named OntoBRIX series intends to connect researchers from the Euroregio Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino and beyond; it has been inaugurated with a meeting in Brixen in 2023.

Keynote speakers

• Riccardo Baratella – University of Genova & University of Cassino: Towards a Theory of Being Apt

• Stefano Borgo – Laboratorio della Ontologia Applicata (LOA), Trento: The usefulness of heterogeneous, unclear and vague concepts: The case of terrain vague

• Massimiliano Carrarra – University of Padova: Compatibilism in ontology: expanding the landscape

• Michael Gruninger – University of Toronto: Semantic Parsing for Ontology Validation

• Giancarlo Guizzardi – University of Twente, Enschede: Explanation, Semantics and Ontology

• Christian Kanzian – University of Innsbruck: Analogy in Contemporary Metaontology

• Friederike Moltmann – Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Nice: The Priority of the Whole in Ontology and Semantics

• Jakub Szymanik – University of Trento: The Cognitive Ontology of Logic: How Learnability Shapes the Universal Lexicon of Quantifiers

Registration

If you want to participate, please register here, preferably till May 31: https://forms.gle/U2UjQ7Bkr2jxxa688

Conference fees

There is a conference fee of 50 Euro for the whole event. The conference fee includes lunches and coffee breaks. When registering, the conference fee should be paid by bank transfer to Priesterseminar Brixen: IT64Q0604558220000000113000 (Südtiroler Sparkasse); please mention OntoBrix 2026 and the name of the participant. Social dinners will be self-paid.

Organizing Committee

•  Riccardo Baratella, University of Genova & University of Cassino

• Stefano Borgo, Laboratory for Applied Ontology (LOA) CNR-ISTC

• Ludger Jansen, PTH Brixen College & University of Rostock

•  Christian Kanzian, University of Innsbruck

• Oliver Kutz, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

•  Giorgio A. Ubbiali, PTH Brixen College

Adviser for S&P:

• Friederike Moltmann, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Nice

Contact

Please address all inquiries to ontobrix@gmail.com.