The Ontological Table
The Ontological Table
The ontological table is an extension of Euler's circles. Euler's circles do not take into account unshared names ("Socrates", "the Moon", ...) or fictitious names ("Pegasus", "centaur", ...). A black disk represents the only object named by an unshared name; a circle represents the many objects named by a shared name ("man", "philosopher", ...); no disk or circle is used in the case of a fictitious name. The ontological table consists of two subtables, for one name (3 diagrams) and for two names (16 diagrams).
Given one name, choose a diagram that illustrates its semantic status.
Given two names, choose 1 of 16 possibilities for their semantic status.