Empiricism and Rationalism in Region-based Theories of Space

Issue title: Qualitative Spatial Reasoning

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Pratt-Hartmann, Ian

Abstract: Suppose we want to develop a theory of space in which the primary entities are not points, but regions. How do we proceed? Historically, the most popular approach is to select a group of spatial relations corresponding to familiar spatial concepts, and then to construct an axiomatic system governing these relations. The appropriateness of this axiomatic system is to be judged on the basis of its ability to chime with pre-theoretic intuition and of its success in a larger theory of scientific or commonsense spatial reasoning. In this paper, we argue that this approach is flawed, and leads only to labyrinthine systems of doubtful theoretical or practical value. We present an alternative approach which substitutes mathematical rigour for pre-theoretic intuition, and which at the same time provides a real guarantee of practical applicability.

Keywords: Spatial reasoning, mereology, topology, ontology

Journal: Fundamenta Informaticae, vol. 46, no. 1-2, pp. 159-186, 2001