One of the most fundamental questions to be asked about existence is “What exists?”

• For example if one is standing outside a room, one can ask a question, what exists inside the room? The answer can be table, chair, bed etc.

• Similarly one can ask “What a room is made of?” The things that exist in order to make a room are Bricks, Walls, and Cement etc. “What exists” question comes from the need to know what something is made up of.

• Similarly, one can ask “What exists in this Universe.” It is the same as saying what the Universe is made up of.

The answer that ontology provides is: Objects, Properties and Events. In modern literature, ‘Objects’ have been replaced with ‘Concepts’ and ‘Properties’ have been replaced with ‘Relation’.  Hence, what exist in the Universe are Concepts and their Relationships with each other.

To have knowledge about something is to know the relationship that thing has with what it is related to.

Examples:

• Static Relations:

1. The Book is Lying on the Table.
  - Here there are three terms that are in relation to each other.
  -  Book and Table are terms which are joined by the relation ‘Lying’.

2. Rahim Pushed the Table.
 - Rahim and Table are objects connected by the relation ‘Push’.
 - Show image of Rahim pushing a table.

In the first statement, no action is happening and in the second action is happening. Both are events. The first is simply telling the position of an object with respect to another. And, second sentence tells the effect of one object on another.

3. Blood is Red.
 - Here the object is Blood and Redness is its property. 

Property is not expressed as a relation. It is only an attribute of an object. But here again, there is an underlying relation. Red is one of the categories of color. Red connects Blood with a general category Color.

4. Pushpa is Indian.
 - This is similar to Blood is red.

Here Pushpa is connected with the category of Nationality. The connecting property is Indian. Nationality can be many other things like Chinese, American etc.

5. Humans are Intelligent.
 - This is similar to Blood is red.

In this statement two categories are in a relation; Humans and Character, connected by relation intelligence. Quality or character can be many things like kindness, Jealousy, Anger, Courageous etc.

6. This Bottle is made of Steel.
 -  Here again Bottle is connected to one category of materials which is steel.

We can extend it and say, Steel is strong. This is similar to saying that Humans are intelligent

Similarly when it is said that Steel is strong, it is a General Statement about the category steel. This can also be expressed as All Steel is strong.

When it is said that Humans are intelligent. It is a General Statement about the Category humans. This can also be expressed as All humans are intelligent.

But if one says that this bottle is made of steel, one is only stating a singular fact. It is only applicable to one thing. This is a particular statement.

The statements seen so far are about fixed attribute of something. We can call them Static Relations. • Dynamic Statements:

Example:
1. When water was heated, it turned into vapor.
 - This is a statement of a single fact.
 - Here Heat is the causal relation between Water and Vapor

If we say; when heat is applied, all liquids turn to vapor. This is a general principle explaining the qualitative law of Vaporization.

The statement is about some event happening. Hence, we can call it as Dynamic Relation.

SUMMARY:

So far we have seen following aspects:

• There are relations in which more than one objects or terms are connected or associated with each other.

• The relations are static or dynamic in nature.

• Static ones classify the relation by giving them fixed properties or attributes. Like Blood is Red or Pushpa is Indian. Or All Humans are Intelligent. While Dynamic relations are associated with events and actions. Like seen in example of water evaporates on being heated or Rahim Pushed the Table.

• The relations are expressed in two ways: In terms of
(1) Facts and (2) General Principles.

• Facts are single events or instances: For Eg. This bottle is made of steel.
General Principles are relations common to a group of objects:
For Eg. All steel is Strong

• Also, Facts can be both - Static and Dynamic. For Eg.
- This bottle is made of steel is Static Fact.
- Rahim pushed the table is a Dynamic Fact

• And, General Principles can be either Static or Dynamic. For Eg.
- Blood is red is a Static General Principle
- When liquids are heated, they Vaporize is a dynamic General Principle.

• Facts and General Principles are themselves related with each other as:
Facts leads to formation of general Principles.

• The end of any scientific investigation is to produce a statement about relationship between certain entities or concepts.

• The process by which the validity of a statement is tested is the subject matter of Epistemology.