ABSTRACT
Scientific ontology We now consider the first of a series of ontological commitments in four traditional subscategories of applied scientific ontology. Shall we follow the lead of other ontologists by distinguishing between appearance and reality in a strong metaphysical sense? What shall we say about the ontology of substance? Is there an argument to be made for the transcendence of a certain part of the preferred existence domain that is, in some sense, above and beyond, or in any case outside, the actual world? What light does the combinatorial analysis of being as maximal consistency shed on any of these time-honoured distinctions in metaphysics and applied scientific ontology?
