Theory and Applications of Ontology: Computer Applications
Ontology was once understood to be the philosophical inquiry into the structure of reality: the analysis and categorization of ‘what there is’. Recently, however, a field called ‘ontology’ has become part of the rapidly growing research industry in inform
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Roberto Poli · Michael Healy · Achilles Kameas Editors
Theory and Applications of Ontology: Computer Applications
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Editors Roberto Poli University of Trento Dept. Sociology and Social Research 26, Verdi str. 38100 Trento Italy [email protected]
Dr. Michael Healy 13544 23rd Place NE., Seattle WA 98125-3325 USA [email protected]
Achilles Kameas Hellenic Open University & Computer Technology Institute N. Kazantzaki Str. 265 00 Patras University Campus Greece [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
ISBN 978-90-481-8846-8 e-ISBN 978-90-481-8847-5 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8847-5 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010933121 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Chapter 11 is published with kind permission of © All rights reserved No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
After a long period of decline, ontology is back at the forefront of philosophy, science and technology. These days ontology comes in at least two main fashions: the traditional philosophical understanding of ontology has been recently flanked by a new – computer-based – understanding of ontology. There are scholars from both fields contending that ontology in knowledge engineering and ontology in philosophy are two completely different disciplines. On the one hand there is analysis closely tied to the concrete problems of domain modeling; on the other, difficult and usually very abstract speculations on the world and its most rarified structures. For this reason, it is claimed, those scientists who occupy themselves with ontology in knowledge engineering should not be concerned with what philosophers have to say (and vice-versa). The thesis defended by Theory and Applications of Ontology is exactly the opposite. We shall try to show in this work that – despite their different languages and different points of departure – ontologies in knowledge engineering (let’s say: ontology as technology) and ontology in philosophy (let’s say: ontology as categorial analysis) have numerous problems in common and that they seek to answer similar questions. And for this reason, engineers and philosophers must devise ways to talk to each other. The current resurgence of interest in ontological issues displays a number of novel features, both among philosophers and among information technologists. Among philosophers, the revival of a genuine interest in ontology requires the removal of certain prejudices that have profoundly influenced the analytic and the continental camps, both of which have in recent decades systematically delegi
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