Ancient Greek and Chinese Philosophers

Overview

This ontoterminology models philosophers, the works they wrote, the schools they belonged to, and their positioning in space and time — birthplace, places they stayed, century of activity. Works are linked to one another through a mentions relation, so you can ask which of Plato's dialogues mention Hippias of Elis and who else appears alongside him.

It builds on a version developed for the KELKIP project.

Scope

Access the data

Query it through the SPARQL endpoint using this named graph:

Ways in

• SPARQL endpoint: browser interface, no setup
• OTV Ontology Viewer: browse the class hierarchy
• RDF Graph Viewer: explore as a network
• Download the RDF/OWL and .otb files

The .otb file opens in TEDI; the .rdf file opens in Protégé, and can be visualised with WebVOWL.

Example queries

Which Ancient Greek philosophers were born or stayed in Athens?

Returns each philosopher with their school and century. The school is optional, so philosophers with no recorded affiliation still appear rather than being dropped from the results.

PREFIX rdf:  <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#>
PREFIX rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#>
PREFIX ont:  <http://www.ontologia.fr/OTB/Philosophers#>
PREFIX otv:  <http://www.ontologia.fr/OTB/otv#>

SELECT ?name ?school ?century
FROM <https://triplestore.talos-ai4ssh.uoc.gr:8890/datasets/Ancient-Greek-Chinese-Philosophers-v1>
WHERE {
  { ?x otv:instanceOf       ont:Ancient-Greek-Philosopher ;
       ont:birthPlace       ont:athens ;
       rdfs:label           ?name ;
       ont:centuryOfLiving  ?t.
    ?t rdfs:label ?century }
  UNION
  { ?x otv:instanceOf       ont:Ancient-Greek-Philosopher ;
       ont:stayedIn         ont:athens ;
       rdfs:label           ?name ;
       ont:centuryOfLiving  ?t.
    ?t rdfs:label ?century }

  OPTIONAL {
    ?x ont:memberOfPhilosophicalSchool ?y.
    ?y rdfs:label ?school.
    FILTER (lang(?school) = "en")
  }
  FILTER (lang(?name) = "en")
}
ORDER BY ASC(?name)

The UNION is what makes the question answerable. Athens drew philosophers who were not born there, so asking only about birthPlace would miss most of the people who actually worked in the city. Modelling birthPlace and stayedIn as separate properties, then combining them at query time, keeps the distinction in the data while still allowing the broader question.

Size & structure

Citation & licence

Cite as

Giannadakis, R., Papadopoulou, M., & Roche, C. (2024).
Ontoterminology of Ancient Greek and Chinese Philosophers - version 1.0 (Version 1.0) [Dataset].
Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13372136

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13372136

Licence

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Funding

European Commission, TALOS AI4SSH, grant agreement 101087269.

Credits

Department of Philology, University of Crete