Subclass of:

• crm:E2 Temporal Entity

Superclass of:

• sdh:C23 Use
• sdh:C60 Thing Involved in an Epistemic Situation
• sdh:C73 Epistemic Situation of a Group
• sdh:C77 Epistemic Phase of a Physical Thing

Relations:

• owl:disjointWith crm:E4 Period

Scope note:

This class comprises time-indexed observational situations defined as sets of phenomena in time and physical space whose identity does not depend on intrinsic criteria but on the perspective of the external observer, who carves out the epistemic situation from a more complex or prolonged number of temporal phenomena. The coherence or identity of an observational situation is thus provided by a specific, research-driven choice of the observer and this class is therefore disjoint from the crm:E4 Period class whose coherence is considered to be intrinsically defined.

The Observational Situation class includes situations in observable phenomena that are sliced up in terms of temporal duration, or of geographical extension or of the restriction to a particular aspect of more complex phenomena. For example, if we consider the economic activity of a country during a civil year, and measure different aspects of it, the life of this physical and social phenomenon does not stop to exist at the 31th of December of that year, nor it is limited to economy. An observational situation thus cuts out a portion of more complex phenomena for the sake of observation and research. It is somehow constructed by simplification and choice of specifc aspects of the temporal phenomena, retaining just a specific set of them.

An observational situation can also concern the absence of a particular kind of phenomena during a particular period of time or in a particular place, such as the known non-presence of a person at an event. The observational situation is driven by an epistemic approach: it carves out a moment in time and space and captures the information of the absence of an awaited phenomenon. In this case the set of considered temporal phenomena is empty.

Examples:

The economic activity in France in the year 2022. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of that year in France will be espressed as an instance of the Epistemic Situation Quantiative Quality class associated to the epistemic situation.

The weather (or the meteorological situation) in Bern in the month of March 2021. The average temperature in Bern, for instance, will be expressed using an instance of the Epistemic Situation Quantiative Quality class.

In First Order Logic:

• C3(x) ⇒ E2(x)

Outgoing properties:

• sdh:P74 has epistemic situation preferred type (is epistemic situation preferred type of) (0,n:0,1) → sdh:C56 Epistemic Situation Type
• sdh:P91 involves (is involved in) (0,n:0,1) → crm:E77 Persistent Item

Incoming properties:

• sdh:C59 Quantifiable Quality of an Epistemic Situation → sdh:P76 is quantifiable quality of (has quantifiable quality) (0,n:1,1)
• sdh:C60 Thing Involved in an Epistemic Situation → sdh:P77 is involvement in (has involved things) (0,n:1,1)