UMOSU and UMOKWAI: An Ontological and Epistemic-Operational Model for the Classification of Reality and Knowledge

Abstract This paper presents UMOSU (Unified Model of Social Universe), an ontological model designed to provide a neutral representation of reality and to locate different forms of knowledge within that representation. UMOSU classifies phenomena according to the components and relations necessary for their occurrence, rather than according to the material composition or presumed essence of the objects involved. The model distinguishes four domains: the inorganic subuniverse, the subuniverse of life, the semiotic subuniverse, and a domain of complexity arising from the combination of phenomena belonging to the preceding domains. Three thresholds—life, processing, and complexity—identify the main ontological transitions between these domains. UMOSU characterizes phenomena through five parameters: origin, relationship, shape, reality check, and legality of free will. These parameters make it possible to distinguish phenomena according to their ontological and epistemic properties, including the distinction between bijective and non-bijective relations and between falsifiable, formally demonstrable, and empirically verifiable forms of knowledge. UMOKWAI (Unified Model of Knowledge With AI) applies the UMOSU map to the classification of knowledge. It organizes disciplines into eight principal categories, K1–K8, according to the phenomena they study and the type of epistemic control applicable to them. The resulting classification distinguishes falsifiable sciences, technological disciplines, biological and organized-life sciences, formal and logical disciplines, speculative disciplines, and complex social, cultural, and institutional disciplines. The model also addresses the relationship between information, signs, meaning, logical processing, speculative processing, artificial intelligence, and social normativity. Particular attention is given to the distinction between reality and knowledge about reality, and between facts, formal demonstrations, empirical verification, and interpretations or doctrines. UMOSU and UMOKWAI are proposed as practical and potentially revisable models for orienting knowledge without replacing existing scientific disciplines or disciplinary classifications. Their purpose is to provide a common ontological map on which different forms of knowledge can be located according to the phenomena they describe and the criteria by which their claims can be evaluated.