Abstract
In this paper, we elaborate on the fundamental characteristics of ecological ontologies, and draw attention to the importance of space and time in the structure of these ontologies. First, we argue that a key to the specification of eco‐ontologies is the notion of teleological organization grounded in a notion of recursion. Second, we introduce the notion of roles to characterize the generalized and interactive teleological aspects of ecological systems. Third, we also introduce a preliminary set of temporal and spatial concepts intended to represent ecological space and time in the formalization of eco‐ontologies. Fourth, we show how some important epistemological constraints on cognition are fundamentally ecological in nature. This work is informed by Kant's investigations into the foundations of biology, by the hermeneutic investigations of Heidegger and Gadamer, and by mathematical investigations into recursive logic and their application to biology by Spencer‐Brown, Maturana, Varela, and Kauffman.