Preface

Let me remark on some issues I found important before I start with the essence of this thesis.

This is essentially my first scientific writing. Five years of studying did not prepare me all too well for this task, but I still hope this work is worth reading.

I used English language, which is not my native language. I used it to practice writing in English, as I am willing to continue working in an English-speaking environment. Although this is not my first writing in English, it is the first of this size. Please accept occasional mistakes I made in the use of English language. Most sentences are short and trivial, compared to a scientific text or some other text of an English writer. Maybe you can see this as an advantage, and find it easier to read.

I will be using a plural form throughout this thesis, except in this chapter. So when I formulate some result, I will use ``we''. I could have written this thesis using strictly passive phrases, but I find this hard to read. I did not want to use ``I'', because this thesis is not about me, but about the ontology of situations and situoids.

Another remark: This thesis involved a lot of reading, and most of the articles I read were published in journals which did not offer their articles online for free. I would have loved to ignore these articles, but it was impossible, because this decision would have had a severly negative impact on my thesis. I was lucky, because I finally found a solution to access tons of articles online for free, but this was an exceptional case. Students who were not so lucky would have had less information for their thesis, or they would have paid lots of money to buy all those articles. And still, scientists all over the world continue to publish their research in journals which charge a fee for accessing their content. With hundreds of journals available today, any library, any institution, any person would have to spend unreasonable amounts of money to access all the information in these journals. This brings about a barrier to scientific knowledge. ``Poor'' institutions (for example in Third World countries, but also in countries like Germany) will not have the same possibilities as richer ones. Private people will find it almost impossible to access scientific information.

The solution to this is easy. Classical journals are obsolete anyway, in the meantime, since most journals offer their articles online. Because most of the time reviewers and members of the editorial board are working for free, it is just a simple step to creating an online, ``Open Access'' journal. Thousands are already available, with the same scientific standards (peer review, et cetera) as classical journals. The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities, signed by representatives of most major scientific institutions in Germany and Europe, requests all scientists to support the use of Open Access journals. And still there are many scientists who refuse. The reasons vary. It may be found necessary to publish in more famous journals for the own scientific career, for own pride, because it is the usual way, or for the sake of more funding. The reasons may vary, but they are all flawed. The most important goal of all science is to gain knowledge for the sake of all of humanity. With the creation of a barrier to access of information for large groups of people, modern science becomes a hobby for a highly privileged guild of persons from First World countries. And more, scientific progress is slowed down by this kind of behaviour. Knowledge actually grows faster the more people share it. Please consider using Open Access journals.

If you are a scientist publishing in classic journals, please do not feel insulted by my statements above, but read them critically. This is my own, private opinion, that arose out of the writing of this thesis and the discussions I had with other students facing the same problems as I did. This is the only relation this chapter has with this thesis, but I found it so important, I did not want to leave it out. This is also the only reason I wrote a preface.