Towards a Semantic Ontology
Ganapathy Mahalingam · Northern Plains Ethics Journal · 2022
Architecture is a discipline, where form is given to ideas of inhabitation, and to building materials and structures that make the inhabitation possible. In the tradition of Aristotle and Aquinas, the soul of a work of Architecture is postulated as the animating principle that enjoins matter and form in its design. This article presents an articulation of this animating principle. It describes a Semantic Ontology that explains existence, being, becoming, and reality in Architecture, in terms of meaning. Meaning is used in Semantic Ontology as a primary ontological category to address these four aspects of Being. The trajectory towards a Semantic Ontology is the quest for the soul of Architecture, the soul which unites and animates matter and form in Architecture.