Hello all!
There is a question we have been discussing in our group for a long
time, and we would be glad to have your opinions on it: Can
ontologies really contain individuals?
We know that many of the ontology representation languages provide
constructs to represent individuals. However, an ontology is a
theory about a conceptualization, which in turn could be loosely
seen as a structure of generalizations about a given domain.
Generalizations usually refer to concepts; not to individuals. Thus,
one might ask how a conceptualization can have individuals that
could be specified. On the other hand, we also acknowledge the
fact that including individuals in ontologies might be necessary in
some cases, such as when a concept is defined in relation to
specific particular (e.g. "Former US President", "Red Car").
Furthermore, there are some authors actually questioning this sharp
distinction between universals and particulars (there some papers
about this in FOIS 2010, I guess).
Any thoughts on that?
Regards,
Sandro Rama Fiorini
inf.ufrgs.br/bdi
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