Instantiation

How class hierarchies materialise; particulars and classes

Instantiation connects class hierarchies to individuals: which particulars—or, in multi-level settings, which classes—stand in an instance-of relationship to which class. The treatise’s central clarification is that both particulars and classes can be instantiated, and that particulars and classes can sometimes be “cast” into each other’s roles—yet, with the sole exception of horizontal instantiation, particulars never instantiate other particulars. The word instance is not used uniformly in the literature; TAoKE ties it to class hierarchies and to data property inherence.

See [FoAl2021] and [AlCa2018] for multi-level and conceptual-structure background.

Typical patterns use ◊iof (instance-of) between a particular and a class, combined with ◊subClassOf links that constrain which DPs and OPs apply. The canonical text develops this alongside layers (schema vs. particulars) and DPI restrictions sketched on the Classes page.

Session facts and rule conclusions correspond to instantiated knowledge: keep identifiers traceable to the class-level model so exports and audits remain coherent.