From collective intentionality to intentional collectives: An ontological perspective

This paper gives an upside-down view of the problem of collective intentionality by providing a treatment of the notion of intentional collective. Based on reviews of the relevant literature, we apply two formal-ontological tools of our choice (namely, DOLCE and D&S) to the definition of the notions of collection, agent, plan and collective, all underlying the concept of intentional collective. Although our results are preliminary, we believe that the proposed approach offers several advantages, among which its explicitness, modularity and formality. This makes it particularly suitable for a founded specification of typologies of collections and collectives.