LILIANA ALBERTAZZI THE ROOTS OF ONTICS Also psychology has a problematic metaphysical background; it is notjusta pure sci- ence of the facts. This consists in the mode of being of psychic reality (Hartmann, Zur Grundlegung der Ontologie, 1935) 1. INTRODUCTION In his architectural ontology, Hartmann distinguishes between levels of reality and levels of being. 1 As to levels of reality, he distinguishes at least four ontological strata of the real world: the material, the psychological and the social, among which specific forms of categorical and existential dependence exist. Reality, however, is only a section of being. As to the the levels of being, Hartmann distinguishes among ontology, ontics and metaphysics. In particular: 1. Ontology concerns the categorical analysis of entities by means of the knowledge categories able to classify them. 2. Ontics refers to a pre-categorical and pre-objectual connection which is best expressed in the relation to transcendent acts. 3. Metaphysics is that part of ontics or that part of ontology which con- cerns the residue of being that cannot be rationalized further according to categories. On the basis of this last distinction, the psychological stratum is of crucial importance in Hartmann’s ontology, and for various reasons. Firstly, because it provides direct access to the ontic. This access is problematic, however, because certain layers of the psychological stratum, due to the lack of adequate knowledge categories, at first sight seem to be excluded from ontological categorization. Secondly, because the psychological stratum is one of the levels of be- ginning of new series of categories. It is well known that in Hartmann’s ontology the psychic level stands in a twofold relation, as follows: Axiomathes 12: 299–315, 2001. © 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.