Luz Christopher Seiberth: Hypergraphing Metadata (Meta)Ontologies

Abstract

When Wilfrid Sellars received an invitation to the Rockefeller Conference on Semantics, Monterey, California, 13-21 August 1950, he drafted the "Outlines of a Philosophy of Language". Although the typescript was never developed into a paper, its use of Wittgenstein's Tractatus numbering is striking. Drawing on the recently established digital edition of Sellars' writings, the Corpora Sellarsiana Online, I show (1) how the hypergraph modelling interface is uniquely suited to the representation of Sellars' writings, in which each segment has a particular signature, a node in its hypergraph. Then I show (2) that Wittgenstein's Tractatus lends itself to exploration in a hypegraph interface, evidencing that both authors are linked internally and across graphs, forming a metagraph. On this basis, I (3) argue that a hypergraph modelling space ranges across diverse datasets providing uniquely expressive solutions for metadata ontology development. This involves dynamising the interplay between (i) extrinsic strategies targeting forms of LLM/AI-assisted data conceptualisation, and (ii) contentive, interpretive paradigms guiding scholarly practices. Because the hypergraph interface powerfully facilitates the integration of requirements and problem framings, it also opens up innovative solution-search-spaces for areas as diverse as digital editions, historiographical research, and e.g. the teaching of canonical positions. I detail how this hypegraphing practice supports articulating reference architectures for information resources relevant to the retrieval of bibliographic data and scholarly research. I do this by illustrating in a metaparagraph how Wittgenstein is read by and influences Sellars' thinking.

Luz Christopher Seiberth is associate professor at the chair for theoretical philosophy at the department of philosophie, University of Potsdam.