The differentia principle as a cornerstone of ontology

The Information Society relies more and more on the co-operation and collaboration of multidisciplinary people who need to communicate and share information. Communication and knowledge sharing are the new economic stakes. But everyone speaks his own language, with his own terms and meanings. The information society is a Tower of Babel which has to evolve to the knowledge society. Since the beginning of the nineties, ontologies seemed being as one of the most suitable solutions faced with this problem and became a very popular research topic in knowledge representation. Nevertheless several problems remain which claim for clarification. As a matter of fact, there is no agreement about what an ontology is; and the numerous systems as well as not very clear epistemological principles are barriers to the real use of ontologies. The ontology problem requires a multidisciplinary approach based on sound epistemological, logical and linguistic principles. This article presents the “differe...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: WM
• Authors: Christophe Spies
• Keywords: Clear Epistemological Principles, Information Society, Knowledge Management, Ontology, WM 2003