defined through physical containment: the aggregate of molecules of carbon dioxide in a sealed container
an organization is an aggregate whose member parts have roles of specific types (for example in a jazz band, a chess club, a football team)
a swarm of bees is an aggregate of members who are linked together through natural bonds
defined via attributive delimitations such as: the patients in this hospital
a collection of cells in a blood biobank.
a symphony orchestra
the aggregate of blood cells in your body
the nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere
the restaurants in Palo Alto
the aggregate of bearings in a constant velocity axle joint
your collection of Meissen ceramic plates.
defined through physical attachment: the aggregate of atoms in a lump of granite
defined by fiat: the aggregate of members of an organization
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obo_purl:IAO_0000116
BFO 2 Reference: object aggregates may gain and lose parts while remaining numerically identical (one and the same individual) over time. This holds both for aggregates whose membership is determined naturally (the aggregate of cells in your body) and aggregates determined by fiat (a baseball team, a congressional committee).
An entity a is an object aggregate if and only if there is a mutually exhaustive and pairwise disjoint partition of a into objects
obo_purl:IAO_0000119
ISBN:978-3-938793-98-5pp124-158#Thomas Bittner and Barry Smith, 'A Theory of Granular Partitions', in K. Munn and B. Smith (eds.), Applied Ontology: An Introduction, Frankfurt/Lancaster: ontos, 2008, 125-158.
obo_purl:BFO_0000179
object-aggregate
obo_purl:BFO_0000180
ObjectAggregate
obo_purl:IAO_0000600
b is an object aggregate means: b is a material entity consisting exactly of a plurality of objects as member_parts at all times at which b exists. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [025-004])
obo_purl:IAO_0000602
(forall (x) (if (ObjectAggregate x) (and (MaterialEntity x) (forall (t) (if (existsAt x t) (exists (y z) (and (Object y) (Object z) (memberPartOfAt y x t) (memberPartOfAt z x t) (not (= y z)))))) (not (exists (w t_1) (and (memberPartOfAt w x t_1) (not (Object w)))))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [025-004]
