Scope note

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This class comprises characteristics, qualities or conditions of persistent items or temporal entities at a given moment or during a time-span. It is inspired by the concept of qualities in DOLCE, defined as individualized properties that inhere in particulars: a specific quality inheres in each class instance and ceases to exist at the end of the life of the instance it inheres to. The value of the quality or quale (DOLCE), e.g. the color of an object, is associated to the entity quality and is possibly time-indexed, i.e. valid at and limited to a given time-span.

A characteristic or quality of an entity is conceptualised in the SDHSS ontology as a time-indexed observable phenomenon denoting the fact that the quality (DOLCE) of a given entity at a given time has a specific value or quale, and that this value is stable over the time span considered. Rather than modelling the quality as a distinct entity, as in DOLCE, the class dh:C1 Entity Quality is defined as a subclass of temporal entity and associates a specific quality value in a reference space, e.g. red, to an entity, e.g. a car. Thus, according to the present conceptualisation a quality, in this case the colour of the car, refers to a specific period of time and to a specific quality value, namely the observable phenomenon of the thing having this quality and value, and not to a quality in general, e.g. colour, which is conceptualised as a quality type.

The kind of quality observed (color, weight, etc.) is specified by a suitable quality type or creating subclasses with specific properties. No generic property is defined to associate any crm:E1 Entity with a quality. As a matter of fact not all subclasses of the sdh:C1 Entity Quality class concern the same types of entities and one cannot therefore extend an inheritance of a generic has quality property to all subclasses but they have to be considered distinctly. For instance, the crm:E3 Condition State class can be considered as representig a specialization of the sdh:C1 Entity Quality class and the crm:P44 has condition (is condition of) property opportunely associates a physical object with its physical condition or state. Thus, sdh:C1 Entity Quality is an abstract class and has no direct instances.

A characteristic or quality is initiated, influenced and ended by events (crm:E5 Event class) and this is modelled by correspondent properties.

Language

en