=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1637/paper_4
|storemode=property
|title=Investigating Worldviews with Protégé
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1637/paper_4.pdf
|volume=Vol-1637
|authors=Thomas Bro Wormslev Jakobsen,David Jakobsen,Peter Øhrstrøm
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/iccs/JakobsenJO16
}}
==Investigating Worldviews with Protégé==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1637/paper_4.pdf
Investigating Worldviews with Protégé
Thomas Bro Wormslev Jakobsen, David Jakobsen and Peter Øhrstrøm
Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University
Rendsburggade 14, 9200 Aalborg, Denmark
{tja,davker,poe}@hum.aau.dk
Abstract. This paper offers a discussion of the usefulness of the ontology editor
Protégé 5.0 as a tool for working with qualitative data. As an illustration we
focus on an ongoing research project on the worldviews and beliefs of three
groups of religious and spiritual professionals in Denmark. It is argued that the
use of Protégé in this case can provide important new insights. It is also argued
that Protégé can reveal unforeseen relations and give rise to interesting
questions for further research. However, it is finally argued that this Protégé
approach can only catch some of the aspects of a worldview.
Keywords: Worldview, Formal Ontology, Protégé.
Protégé 5.0 was developed at Stanford University as a tool for making ontologies
for use in biomedicine (cf. protege.stanford.edu). It is a graphical editor that gives the
user a clear and intuitive approach to definition of classes, relations, instances and
data properties. On top of this, a series of useful plugins have been developed like the
DLquery tool which we will use for queries into the ontology.
In this paper we focus on how the ontology editor Protégé can be utilized as a
conceptual tool in working with qualitative data related to worldview analysis. Since
the concept of a worldview is close to that of ontology, Protégé would appear to be an
obvious tool to use when analyzing worldviews.
A worldview can be conceptualized as an ontology of the answers a person would
give to the most fundamental questions about reality. In the words of Nash:
“A worldview contains a person’s answers to the major questions in life, almost
all of which contains significant philosophical content. It is a conceptual
framework, pattern, arrangement of a person’s beliefs.” (Nash 1999 pp. 13)
Ontologies, on the other hand, describe the concepts in a selected domain and
furthermore the relationships that appear to hold between those concepts (cf. Horridge
2011 & Vidal 2011, 2012). Taking beliefs of a specific group of individuals as our
domain for an ontology, suggests that an ontology would suit the definition given by
Nash of what a worldview is. According to Nash, the best worldviews “are
comprehensive, systematic and supposedly true views of life and the world”.
However, according to Nash, worldviews can also “suffer from incompleteness,
inconsistency and other failings” (Nash, 1999). Since most aspects of life can be
analyzed using ontologies, and given the conceptual proximity between an ontology
and a worldview, it seems obvious that at least some of the advantages of using
formal ontology to categorize and analyze a specific domain would also be present
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2 Thomas Bro Wormslev Jakobsen, David Jakobsen and Peter Øhrstrøm
when using it to conceptualize and understand worldviews of specific groups of
people.
1. Protégé and the logical foundation of a worldview
The notion of a worldview, as it is presented by Nash, involves some fundamental
ideas about logic and reasoning. These ideas must be addressed and assessed in light
of Protégé as a tool, before venturing further. Nash’s idea of a worldview is different
from that of Kant, who was most likely the first to coin the phrase Weltanschauung
(Naugle 2002). Naugle has undertaken a study of the history of the concept (Naugle
2002) and documents how the closest neighbor of the term is philosophy, as in The
Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy in which Weltanschauung is described as: “a general
world view; an overarching philosophy” (Naugle 2002). For this reason, philosophical
questions that arise in formalizing philosophy cannot be avoided as discussed by
Merrill and Smith (cf. Smith 2004, Merrill 2010 & Smith 2010). An investigation of
their discussion would go beyond this paper, but we consider it a virtue to work with
specific worldviews in such a way, that we attempt to deduce as much as possible
from as little as possible. What is given is an assumption of Boolean truth values of a
number of propositions concerning worldview related affairs, the basic laws of logic,
and a basic categorization of the participants.
2. Setting up the worldview study
In this paper we focus on qualitative data from a recent study of worldviews held by
the following three groups of religious and spiritual professionals in Denmark:
a) 6 ministers in the national Church of Denmark (Flk-01, Flk-02, Flk-03,
Flk-03, Flk-04, Flk-5, Flk-06)
b) 7 ministers in various free churches (Fri-01, Fri-02, Fri-03, Fri-03, Fri-
04, Fri-5, Fri-06, Fri-07)
c) 6 healers or so-called alternative spiritual advisors (Beh-01, Beh-02,
Beh-03, Beh-03, Beh-04, Beh-5, Beh-06)
These 19 persons have all given rather long interviews (2-3 hours each). A number
of worldview data have been extracted from the transcribed interviews. Obviously,
this process involves an element of interpretation. However, the interviews can be
made available for other qualified researchers who want to check that the
interpretation is reasonable. (The references to persons involved in the transcribed
interviews have been anonymized as indicated in a-c above, and all ethical rules valid
in Denmark have been followed.)
As part of the analytic process the data have been organized relative to a list of
selected attributes. The first 13 attributes deal with objective characteristics of the 19
persons. The following 11 attributes describe relevant aspects of the life stories of the
religious and spiritual professionals.130 attributes have to do with the beliefs and
views of the persons and the remaining 57 describe how the persons act in
(inter)religious dialogue and diapraxis.
The life-story attributes and the attributes of beliefs and views are considered
dimensions of a person’s worldview. Of cause, there are additional dimensions to the
ones in this study. But as mentioned by Koltko-Rivera (2004) the researcher in this
bottom-up approach to worldviews may only include dimensions relevant to the
study. Again, it has to be admitted that the selection of attributes depends on
29
Investigating Worldviews with Protégé 3
interpretation and perspective. However, it is also based on thorough scholarly studies
of theology and religion in general.
The overall aim of the recent research project is to investigate if and how
worldviews shape the practice of religious professionals seen as interreligious
dialogue and diapraxis. The project is inspired by a research project by Rachel
Goldberg (2009). She identified some minor correlations between the worldviews of
American conflict mediators and their actual practice in conflict mediation. However,
can correlations be identified to a larger extend? At present where fault lines often are
within cultures rather than between them and confessional lines tend to be more
irrelevant than earlier, the dimensional worldview seems to be an appropriate way to
go. Can an ontology tool such as Protégé (or perhaps FCA tools) help to create unique
worldview profiles of the 19 religious professionals and to identify correlations
between specific worldview dimensions and the actual practices?
The discussion in this paper will be limited to the 11 attributes describing the
dimensions of conversion and religious calling which are supposed to be essential to
the worldview of a religious professional. These dimensions are identified in the life
stories of the persons in the study, i.e. attributes 14-24. The original attributes are in
Danish and may be translated as follows:
14: Has_experienced_turning_points_in_life_of_a_spiritual_sort
15: Has_experienced_a_conversion
16: Has_experienced_a_calling_through_a_decisive_event
17: Has_experienced_a_calling_through_a_number_of_specific_events
18: Has_experienced_the_calling_as_changed_view_of_life
19: Has_experienced_the_calling_as_an_influence_from_one_or_several_persons
20: Has_experienced_the_calling_as_a_spiritual_experience
21: Has_experienced_the_calling_as_a_personal_revelation (e.g. God/Jesus/Mary)
22: Has_obtained_a_fully_united_personal_and_professional_identity
23: Has_obtained_a_partially_united_personal_and_professional_identity
24: Has_become_a_radically_changed_person_through_spiritual_experiences
Clearly, the focus is on what the religious and spiritual professionals have
experienced. In particular, the attributes deal with possible changes and turning points
in life (conversion, calling etc.). The ambition of the research in this context is to find
interesting conceptual and logical relations between the data related to the attributes.
The data regarding the attributes 14-24 of the 19 professionals have been loaded into
the Protégé system:
Figure 1.
Protégé ontology consisting of three groups of religious and spiritual professionals.
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4 Thomas Bro Wormslev Jakobsen, David Jakobsen and Peter Øhrstrøm
Figure 2. A DL Query as whether there are any individuals that has answered yes to the question 16 or 17.
It turns out that 18 of 19 professionals have experienced a calling through a decisive event or through a
number of specific events.
For practical reasons we attach two formal attributes to each of the 11 items on the
above list (e.g. A014Y and A014N, corresponding to ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to a question
concerning attribute 14 above). This allows us to represent the rather unlikely
situation in which neither an attribute nor its negation apply to the person in question.
For each of the 22 formal attributes and for each of the 19 persons a Boolean value
(‘true’ or ‘false’) is given as a result of the interpretation of the interview of the
person in question.
Once we have loaded the qualitative data represented relative to the list of
attributes into the Protégé system, it becomes possible to explore the data using the
system (as indicated in Fig. 2 above). In particular it is attractive and useful to run
queries in the system. In the following it will be explained how this kind of
exploration can give rise to new and interesting insights.
3. Exploring the ontology by queries
One immediate and rather useful application of Protégé is that it may assist the user
in locating typos in the account of the attributes in the system. Based on an early
version of the Protégé ontology it appeared from preliminary investigations of the
implications of “having a spiritual experience” that
21: Has_experienced_the_calling_as_a_personal_revelation (e.g. God/Jesus/Mary)
did not imply
20: Has_experienced_the_calling_as_a_spiritual_experience.
At least in one case it appeared true that the person in question had attribute 21, but
not attribute 20. This clearly seems odd. However, this and a few other similar cases
turned out to be caused by simple typos in the first account of the attributes in the
system. This is in fact a nice illustration of the potential of Protégé with respect to a
rather simple, but still important kind of model checking.
31
Investigating Worldviews with Protégé 5
Given that all the axioms have been correctly loaded into the system, we may
explore the ontology further. By making queries in Protégé we may attempt to find
what further classes can be constructed and added to our ontology on the basis of the
answers given by the various individuals.
In the following we intend to analyze two interesting notions using the Protégé
ontology, i.e., the concepts of ‘conversion’ and ‘calling’, respectively. The aim of this
discussion it to illustrate how conceptual analysis based on empirical data can be
carried out using Protégé.
A Protégé analysis of “conversion”
How do the religious and spiritual professionals represented in the current dataset
conceive the concepts of “conversion” and “turning points in life”? In order to answer
this question we may run a query in Protégé corresponding to the following logical
expression:
(A014Y value true) or (A015Y value true)
This query gives us 17 out of 19 hits. Only Beh-04 and Fri-05 do not fulfill this
condition. In fact, it turns out that the query, A014Y value true, gives exactly the
same result. The reason is that (A015Y value true) implies (A014Y value true) i.e. if
there is a conversion there is also a turning point in life. This relationship may be
illustrated by the query
(A014Y value false) and (A015Y value true)
which gives no hits. In order to find the professionals who refer to a conversion in the
interview they have given, we should run the query, A015Y value true, corresponding
to “Has_experienced_a_conversion”. This query gives the hits: Fri-01, Fri-03, Fri-04,
Fri-06, Fri-07, Beh-05. Here it may be noted that none of the 6 ministers in the
national Church of Denmark refer to a conversion experience. Maybe the talk about
conversion as a spiritual experience is seen as somewhat more related to pietistic
traditions in the Free Churches, whereas the general approach in the national Church
of Denmark emphasizes reasoning and rationality to a higher degree.
A Protégé analysis of “calling” or “being called”
How do the religious and spiritual professionals represented in the current dataset
conceive the concept of “calling”? How can it be formulated formally what it means
to be “called”? One attempt seems to be that the term could be defined as a
disjunction of the attributes 16 and 17, i.e., formally
(A016Y value true) or (A017Y value true)
The corresponding query is shown in Fig. 2. However, it turns out, that only 18 out
the 19 professionals are called in this sense. In fact, the statement
(A016Y value false) and (A017Y value false)
holds in case of Fri-01. On the other hand, if we define “being called” using all the
attributes in which “calling” is mentioned, i.e.
(A016Y value true) or (A017Y value true) or (A018Y value true) or
(A019Y value true) or (A020Y value true) or (A021Y value true)
the corresponding query will display all 19 professionals.
As we have seen above, at least the last part of this long disjunction can be omitted.
In fact, it can be reduced to:
(A020Y value true) or (A016Y value true) or (A017Y value true)
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6 Thomas Bro Wormslev Jakobsen, David Jakobsen and Peter Øhrstrøm
This can be read as an interesting disjunction:
X has experienced the calling as a spiritual experience.
Or:
X has experienced the calling through a decisive event or a number of
specific events.
The observations indicate that “calling” does not have to be related to specific
events in time. Although the calling appears to be time-related in most cases, it may
alternatively be related to an ongoing process, probably of a more spiritual nature.
Another possibility would of course be that the “calling” is linked to just one specific
event which is not considered to be decisive. If we look into the interview given by
Fri-01 this latter possibility seems to be the reason in the actual case.
It should also be noted that “calling” does not have to be related to anything
spiritual. This is in fact evident from the result of running the query, A020Y value
false, which results in 6 hits: Flk-01, Flk-02, Flk-04, Flk-05, Flk-06, Beh-04. It is
remarkable that 5 out of 6 ministers in the national Church of Denmark, but none of
the 7 ministers in the Free Churches reject the calling as a spiritual experience. In 15
out of 19 cases (including all 6 ministers in the national Church of Denmark) the
‘calling’ can be related, at least in part, to influence from one or several persons (cf.
attribute 19).
It may also be interesting to look into the questions of identity as it is conceived by
persons who have experienced some sort of calling as ministers or spiritual advisors
etc.. The following query may be relevant for that purpose:
(A022Y value false) and (A023Y value false)
The meaning of this expression is that the professionals in question have neither
obtained a fully or a partially united personal and professional identity. This query
gives no hits. The conclusion is obviously that all 19 religious and spiritual
professionals have obtained a fully or a partially united personal and professional
identity. It is, however, not documented that this feeling of mainly one common
identity - in professional as well as in personal life - is caused by the calling rather
than by something else. Further studies will be needed in order to answer this question
in a qualified manner.
4. Finding a hierarchy with Protégé
As we have seen above all 19 professionals have experienced some sort of calling, if
we define the calling experience as
(A020Y value true) or (A016Y value true) or (A017Y value true)
It appears that the two most significant attributes in this definition are A020 and
A016. It is in fact possible to build a traditional hierarchy based on dichotomies using
these attributes (see Fig. 3).
33
Investigating Worldviews with Protégé 7
Figure 3. A conceptual hierarchy in Ontograph (as an integrated part of Protégé) mainly based on
the attributes in the definition of ‘calling’.
By adding A24 as well create a system that divide the group of professional in four
sub-groups of almost same size:
A. has experienced a calling through a decisive event and has become a
radically changed personality: Beh-01, Beh-04, Beh-05, Beh-06, Fri-04
B. has experienced a calling through a decisive event but has not become a
radically changed personality: Fri-02, Fri-03, Fri-05, Fri-07, Flk-05
C. has experienced a calling but not through a decisive event; the calling has
been a spiritual experience: Fri-01, Fri-06, Beh-02, Beh-03, Flk-03
D. has experienced a calling but not through a decisive event; the calling has not
been a spiritual experience: Flk-01, Flk-02, Flk-04, Flk-06
A-D may be understood as four kinds of a calling experience. It appears that A is
mainly (but not only) relevant for healers or so-called alternative spiritual advisors; B
is mainly (but not only) relevant for ministers in the free churches, whereas D is
mainly (but not only) relevant for ministers in the national Church of Denmark. – It
should of course be admitted, that this can only be a tentative suggestion. More data
should be collected in order to have it evaluated in a more solid manner.
5. Protégé as a tool for worldview analysis
To what extent is it possible to study worldviews based on a Protégé analysis?
Regarding comprehensiveness, it is of course not possible to say much, based on just
working with the participants’ view on their calling, spiritual experiences and their
conversion experience. We have seen, though, that we are capable of systematically
categorizing, by logical deduction from answers, what it means to be called, and what
it means to have a conversion and a spiritual experience. A further strength of
working with Protégé has been that it helped us discover oddities and unexpected
aspects of what it means to be called.
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8 Thomas Bro Wormslev Jakobsen, David Jakobsen and Peter Øhrstrøm
A question for further study is how capable persons are to formulate and explain
their world views as comprehensive and logically consistent systems. With the ability
in Protégé for the reasoner to halt if it finds inconsistencies and output these, it is
possible to detect inconsistencies and conceptual problems in the worldviews in a
precise manner. Furthermore, Protégé can help us to discover unforeseen aspects in
worldviews of the persons involved.
There are, however, also important limitations in the kind of logical approach to
worldviews that Protégé can support. In his classical work Women, Fire and
Dangerous Things (1988), George Lakoff has criticized what he calls classical
categorization. Lakoff describes the idea as the view that “reason is a mechanical
manipulation of abstract symbols which are meaningless in themselves, but can be
given meaning by virtue of their capacity to refer to things either in the actual world
or in possible states of the world” (Lakoff 1988). Lakoff calls such a view “mind-as-
computer”, and approaching worldviews with Protégé could be considered as
reducing worldview to something a computer can handle or even be ultimately
comprehended as a programmed formal ontology. We may also refer to the
observation mentioned by Clement Vidal:
We should however already be aware that the danger of emphasising coherence
too much is to build an abstract system of concepts, very coherent, but that would
be too far from reality. So, we should certainly add that coherence must not only
be internal to the system, but also external, with “facts” or “reality”. This dynamic
is similar to the well known mutual feedback between theory and experience in
scientific enquiry. (Vidal 2011, p.14)
Vidal has maintained that religious worldviews tend to be complete but incoherent
(Vidal 2011, p.15). However, it may be argued that this is probably the case for all
comprehensive worldviews, at least in their common sense versions.
Futhermore, it may be relevant to consider Søren Kierkegaard’s much more
existential translation of the German Weltanschauung as the Danish “livssyn” (in
English: “view of life”). According to Naugle:
“Here a lifeview is described as an “unusual illumination about life” which is
granted as a kairos moment in one’s experience. It consists not in an
understanding of everything but rather supplies the key (i.e., a framework or
outline) by which all things can indeed by understood.” (Naugle 2002, pp. 77)
A Kierkegaardian take on worldview would suggest that the idea of the right time,
or the opportune moment, is an important notion which suggests that temporality and
rhetoric should be taken into account when assessing the strength and vitality of a
worldview. This means that we always have to evaluate a worldview in light of the
context and the actual challenges. The usefulness of a worldview depends not only on
the logical and conceptual properties of the worldview, but mainly on its relevance in
the actual situation as a key to a deeper understanding of reality. This is why a
Protégé analysis of a worldview can only be partial, although it can certainly be very
useful with respect to the aspects it can analyze.
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Investigating Worldviews with Protégé 9
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