Shadows to Referents: An Ontological Interpretation of Plato’s Cave for Anomaly Resolution

This paper develops an ontological interpretation of Plato’s Cave to clarify the lifecycle of anomalies and their resolution. We argue that anomalies, as epistemic disruptions, exist only within bounded temporal regions; beginning with an initial observation and ending with resolution that reclassifies them into known categories. To formalize this lifecycle, we introduce the Anomaly Resolution Ontology (ARO) aligned with the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) and Common Core Ontologies (CCO). These ontologies model anomalies as temporally bounded continuants, together with the acts of observation and resolution that define their existence. The framework is illustrated through the Act of Epistemic Enlightenment, modeled as a resolution act that ends the anomaly and transforms unresolved information into resolved information. By linking the Cave allegory with anomaly resolution, this paper advances a semantic framework for representing epistemic transitions in AI, cognitive modeling, and intelligence analysis.