Abstract

This is a multifaceted semantico-ontological investigation of different types of families of concepts and properties. One major result is that contrast between: the ontologically egalitarian or democratic, but epistemologically hierarchical family of colors, and the ontologically hierarchical or pyramidal familiy of negations. The different negations are studied, and the unity of the whole family under a genus reveals the pyramidal structure of the family. The negation or properties has a powerful bearing on Russell’s paradox -- which shows different strands in negation. The connections between existence and negation provides an introduction to Guise Theory and reveals some limitations in Bertrand Russell’s analysis of definite descriptions.