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Re: [ontolog-forum] Is there something I missed?

To: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "John F. Sowa" <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:01:31 -0500
Message-id: <4981D2DB.3060404@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Mike,    (01)

That is a commonly used distinction:    (02)

MB> A distinction I find useful (though not very formal) is that
 > ontology (singular) is the study of what is, while ontologies
 > (plural) are the representations of reality that exist - whether
 > you know about it or not - within individual computer systems
 > and databases, i.e. the local representation of the reality
 > about which the computer is manipulating symbols, with varying
 > degrees of success.    (03)

See below for the opening paragraph of one of my tutorials on
ontology.  The final section of that tutorial is a glossary.    (04)

John
__________________________________________________________________    (05)

Source: http://www.jfsowa.com/ontology/ontoshar.htm    (06)

1. What is Ontology?    (07)

The subject of _ontology_ is the study of the categories of things that 
exist or may exist in some domain.  The product of such a study, called 
_an ontology_, is a catalog of the types of things that are assumed to 
exist in a domain of interest D from the perspective of a person who 
uses a language L for the purpose of talking about D.  The types in the 
ontology represent the predicates, word senses, or concept and relation 
types of the language L when used to discuss topics in the domain D. An 
uninterpreted logic is ontologically neutral:  It imposes no constraints 
on the subject matter or the way the subject is characterized.  By 
itself, logic says nothing about anything, but the combination of logic 
with an ontology provides a language that can express relationships 
about the entities in the domain of interest.    (08)

This is from the first article in the Guided Tour of Ontology:    (09)

    http://www.jfsowa.com/ontology/guided.htm    (010)


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