Bona Fide vs. Fiat Objects

Bona fide objects exist independently of human partitioning or demarcating activity. A mountain, a person, a cell, these have boundaries that exist in nature.

Fiat objects exist only because of human cognitive activity. A department, a state border, a job role, these boundaries are drawn by us.

The distinction matters because:

• Fiat objects require ongoing maintenance to exist. They’re sustained by documents, agreements, and social recognition.
• Bona fide objects remain even when we stop thinking about them.
• Most organizational and institutional entities are fiat objects, which is why they require information systems to persist.

When building knowledge systems, this distinction clarifies what you’re actually modeling. Natural entities can be discovered. Fiat entities must be defined, and those definitions are themselves part of the system you’re building.

Related: 06-atom—granular-partition-theory, 06-atom—document-acts-create-social-reality, 06-molecule—ontology-design-patterns