From facticity to perspective: rethinking classification, truth and interoperability in knowledge organization; or, uncertainty as infrastructure

Purpose This article is an investigation into the root causes of ontological incommensurability in Linked Open Data, which it identifies as arising from a monist, Classical logical model of truth. This model underpins dominant classification practices and does not make provisions for the expression of uncertainty. The paper presents a perspectivist model – both of logic and classification – inspired by Jain philosophy to complicate dominant knowledge organization approaches and thus provide an alternative way of approaching incommensurability. Design/methodology/approach This article adopts critical phenomenology grounded in information studies, science and technology studies, and the philosophy of knowledge. It complicates dominant knowledge organization practices at the level of infrastructure through an interpretive approach and non-dominant epistemology. Findings Dominant classificatory practices underpinning ontological representation in Linked Open Data implicitly treat truths as stable entities and interoperability as alignment of facts. Incommensurability remains therefore intractable within this paradigm. Perspectivism fruitfully reframes classification and introduces standpoint and uncertainty as orientations that resolve difference. Originality/value The article contributes a theoretical intervention to knowledge organization and Linked Open Data scholarship which reframes uncertainty as a condition that enables both engagement and resolution of difference and incommensurability.