C-FORS

The tutorial provides a systematic introduction to the theory of Rigid and Variable Embodiment, first proposed by Kit Fine (1982, 1992, 1999), and to its applications in knowledge representation.
Fine’s theory of Rigid and Variable Embodiment (Fine, 1999) distinguishes two ways an entity can be embodied. Rigid Embodiment applies to objects such as sandwiches or water molecules. In such cases, a certain form or structure is embodied in the fixed, rigid, matter constituting the object. Variable Embodiment applies instead to entities whose parts can change over time, while maintaining their identity, like a car whose parts can successively be replaced. Accordingly, there exists a principle, or function, that picks out the manifestation (possibly, the rigid embodiment) of all the car’s parts assembled at any time in which the car exists. There exists then a kind of whole, the variably embodied car, that corresponds to that principle.
Whereas Fine’s theory remains only partially formalised—despite important advances by Uzquiano (2018)—our goal is to fill these gaps and provide a more rigorous formal foundation.
The theory of rigid and variable embodiment has had tremendous success (although not without criticism, e.g. Masolo et al, 2020), both in philosophy and in knowledge representation, where it has been used to model various objects and phenomena (Ferrario et al, 2018; Baratella, 2023; Guarino et al., 2024; Brouwer et al., 2021; Uzquiano, 2018).

The theory of Rigid and Variable Embodiments aims to account for how an entity has the parts it does at a time and over time. As such, it provides a powerful framework for understanding how an object persists and its identity across transformation. Over the past decade, several applications of the theory have emerged both in philosophy and knowledge representation. However, no systematic introduction or comprehensive presentation of the theory and its applications has been provided.

This tutorial fills that gap by offering the first structured introduction to Rigid and Variable Embodiment for the KR community. Participants will gain a solid understanding of the philosophical theory, its formal foundations, and its relevance to knowledge representation in general.