43rd International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER 2024)

A widespread requirement for conceptual models is that they need to have some kind of formal semantics in order to be used, and especially in order to be shared. In this talk I will defend that just having a formal semantics is not enough: in order to be shared and integrated, conceptual models need to be explained in terms of their ontological commitments to the world. I will distinguish therefore between ordinary conceptual models, which typically describe a domain in terms of its relevant entities and relationships, and have therefore a merely descriptive role, and explanatory conceptual models, which aim at explaining why those relationships hold. I will propose then a systematic approach to expand an ordinary model at two different levels of explanatory detail, based on the ontological notion of truth-making.