The name Elementary Multiperspective Material Ontology should be understood as follows:
- Elementary means, amongst others, that EMMO is a discrete ontology assuming the existence of a smallest possible 4D world object in space and time. The term Elementary in EMMO refers to objects that cannot be divided further in space. Elementary also emphasizes EMMO being a fundamental, top-level ontology.
- Multiperspective highlights a very important aspect of EMMO - that it is possible to describe the world from different perspectives. This makes the ontology both flexible and expressive.
- Material (as the opposite of immaterial) emphasises that EMMO is strictly nominalistic, meaning that it assumes that abstracts do not exist. Material also refers to the historical scope of EMMO aiming at the description of materials and thus to cover the needs of physicists and applied scientists.
- Ontology, yes EMMO is an ontology. It is based on fundamental philosophical concepts like semiosis, mereology and topology.
A lot can be said about the logo:
- The circles refer to Peirce's semiotics with the triadic relation between sign, object and interpretant with the interpreter in the middle.
- The symmetry indicates that EMMO supports multiple perspectives.
- The E-like signs can be seen from different perspectives (angles), making it possible to read it as E M M ⵔ as well as ∃ (there exists) a Шhole Шorld ⵔntology (with the circle in the middle).
- The 3+1 circles emphasises that EMMO is a 4D ontology with three spatial plus one time dimension.
- The lines connecting the circles may refer to graph theory and knowledge graphs.
- A triangle is a common way to represent a ternary phase diagram showing the close connection to physics.