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Dr. Daniel Pantoja,
Leiden University (Netherlands)

Form, Matter, Categories and Vertical Composition

This talk systematically links two ontological doctrines: categories (the most general structures of reality) and hylomorphism (the view that objects are compounds of form and matter).

I argue that these doctrines are integrated by three tenets:

1. there are as many forms as categories,
2. the formative role of each form depends on the category that grounds it, and
3. each categorial form can find its proper place in a unified system based on a vertical or hierarchical understanding of matter and composition.

I will demonstrate this by showing how modifying the categorial architecture of a given ontology yields distinct models based on the same hylomorphic principles, referencing notable systems from the philosophical tradition.

The aim of this piece of research is to advance ontological research by forging a systematic link where one is currently lacking.

Dr. Alejandra Baehr,
Catholic University of Temuco (Chile)

General Remarks on the Logical Grounds of Kant’s Ontology

This talk reconstructs the logical foundations of Kant’s ontology.

It explores how he identifies the categories — the structures that enable an object to be conceived as such — from the formal logical functions of judgments.

Kant’s pivotal innovation lies in his treatment of these logical functions as constitutive ontological categories. These converge in the purely formal notion of an “object in general,” which is the correlate of Kant's concept of synthesis or function (i.e. the operation that unifies a plurality into the unity of a concept).

Thus, Kant provides a coherent framework in which logic guides the discovery of the fundamental structures of objectivity.

This formal, rule-based approach predates current formal ontology approaches.