Fundamentals of ontology

Put things in order in the semantic space to more easily master the systems thinking

Starts 17.08

What can be learnt from this course

conceptual description of the world;
creation of useful and accurate models of the world;
logical intuitive and formal reasoning;

...and, finally, creativity.
Do not be afraid of complicated terminology! After learning it, you will be able to deal with different types of thinking more quickly (first of all - with systems thinking, scientific thinking). After taking this course, you will know how to achieve the growth of the usefulness and accuracy of your models, you will also know how to deal with the most different formal and informal descriptions of the world made by other people.

ENROLL IN THIS COURSE

I want to join group from 17th of August

What other tasks the course will help to solve:

You tend to conceptualize in any case: you build ontologies, whether you know about it, or not. Also you try to reason logically, even if it is an intuitive guess. Our course will help to make these conceptualizations and judgments deliberate as well as translate this vague knowledge about your own combination of intuitive and formal parts of thinking into a reliable holistic thinking approach that can be applied to a wide variety of situations in a wide variety of subject areas.

We teach the correct use of logical schemes: they must be obtained from intuitive guesses in a semi-formal or even completely formal form, correct errors in there (raise the accuracy of models), and then translate them into intuition automatisms. It turns out that for fast and accurate thinking, it is necessary to involve not only difficult and heavy formal thinking with logical reasoning "according to the rules", but the entire spectrum of thinking from intuitive guesses to formal reasoning. The course will allow you to be a person whose thinking takes a site in this range of thinking between the purely intuitive thinking of animals and the absolutely formal thinking of a logical calculator.

The material of the course is based on the results of studies of the early 21st century (Kahneman, Jaynes, Lewis, Partridge, etc. - 17% of 21^st century have pased and many things have changed compared to the best ideas of the 20th century on logic and ontology), the material is not taught in universities or schools yet, however it is necessary for mastering complex thought practices.

In Ontology course, we talk about all the basic concepts that are necessary for understanding the course of systems thinking. So if after taking "Systems Management" or "Systems Leadership" or even "Systems Thinking Online" course, there is a mess in your head - you are welcome for the course.

What you will receive from the course:

In addition to clarity in the head

Useful language

in order to talk about ontologies and logics not only semantically (by what rules we associate a sign that denotes an object and an object in the world), but also pragmatically (how to use signs to perform actions with objects).

Groundwork

which allows you to effectively master other thinking (for example, system, scientific) or simply use the ability developed in the course to build more or less formal models in personal practice;

The spectrum of thinking

from the intuitive to the formal, and peculiar thinking tool (the Bayesian "logic of science" proposed by E.T. Janes), which allows one to unite and consolidate these parts consistently.

The course is recommended to anyone who feels a lack of a holistic view of thinking and the world, and who suspects that these views in the 21st century have changed since the 20th century. Especially the basics of ontology will be useful to those who wants to take a course of systems thinking, or have already taken the course, but have something in its fundamentals that is missunderstood.

The course has an educational qualification: we expect in a course participation of bachelors and masters of engineering and managerial specialties. There will be no mathematics or formal logic in the course (although some arithmetic will be required when we will talk about probabilities), but, for example, poets and historians may feel strange during the course.

classes

once a week

hours (19:00-22:00)

Course program

We will talk about the spectrum of thinking from the intuitive to the formal, the characteristic features of its parts and how exactly we build ontologies (models, descriptions, schemes). We will set the framework and terminology for the rest of the course, we will understand the concept of domain (subject domain) and classifiers.

We will look at the concept of the model and how to talk about them and how to evaluate them. We will find out what to do if you need to keep in mind two models or combine one model with another. We will talk about the problem of truth and touch the base on the language of probabilities. We will transfer quotes about the world to a general view on the scale of thinking.

The whole evening we will deal with the Bayes theorem which underlies modern logic: what is the conditional probability, how the odds form differs from the "ordinary" form, why Bayes' theorem is counterintuitive and how to deal with it. We will discuss for which tasks (pragmatically, for the action) we need a certain level of accuracy and why a person often tries to be a Bayesian, but does not realize it (spoiler: that's why it happens to be not very good.) We'll tell you how to deal with this.

Why schematism in thinking does not mean lack of creativity and the absence of schemes does not guarantee its existence. Resource of attention, routine and creativity. What to do with your thinking next?

This course is taught by
Prapion Medvedeva

Philosophical anthropologist, coach of applied rationality, co-founder of the "Kocherga" center.

Prapion teaches ontology and applied rationality: how to make a good decision based on the exact model of the world and then implement it in real life qualitatively.

She likes to understand how people's process of knowing the world as well as process of making and executing decisions is arranged: where exactly can be made relatively small intervention in order to get the best result.

Tution fees

Classes start - 17.08

19 000 rub.

4 classes once a week each class is 3 hours long

Enroll in this course

I want to join group from 17th of August

You really want but cannot join full-time course? Then join us online!
Pick type of enrollment in the page that appear after you click on the button "I want to join group".

Then what?

take the course of system thinking and master it more easily than if you would took it before ontology course (and if you have already passed this course - read the textbook and get much from it);
engage in ontologizing, schematization, logical reasoning for any other work and personal goals, using the whole spectrum of thinking from intuitive to formal;
do nothing while knowledge about the logic and ontology, semantics and pragmatics of the early 21st century will remain with you forever. You will be firmly aware that Aristotelian logic was abolished in the beginning of the 20th century (there were many mistakes in it), and in the 21st century logic became probabilistic (not "unclear" but very clear - but probabilistic!).

Not ready yet to enroll in our course? Well, we created something very useful and absolutely free for you: project analysis check-list

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