(1) Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science (IFOMIS), University of Saarland, Saarbrücken, Postfach 151150, D-66041, Germany
Abstract:
It is argued that medical science requires a classificatory system that (a) puts functions in the taxonomic center and (b)
does justice ontologically to the difference between the processes which are the realizations of functions and the objects
which are their bearers. We propose formulae for constructing such a system and describe some of its benefits. The arguments
are general enough to be of interest to all the life sciences.