On Ontology, ontologies, Conceptualizations, Modeling Languages, and (Meta)Models

In philosophy, the term ontology has been used since the 17th century to refer both to a philosophical discipline (Ontology with a capital "O"), and as a domain-independent system of categories that can be used in the conceptualization of domain-specific scientific theories. In the past decades there has been a growing interest in the subject of ontology in computer and information sciences. In the last few years, this interest has expanded considerably in the context of the Semantic Web and MDA (Model-Driven Architecture) research efforts, and due to the role ontologies are perceived to play in these initiatives. In this paper, we explore the relations between Ontology and ontologies in the philosophical sense with domain ontologies in computer science. Moreover, we elaborate on formal characterizations for the notions of ontology, conceptualization and metamodel, as well as on the relations between these notions. Additionally, we discuss a set of criteria that a modeling la...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: BALT
• Authors: Giancarlo Guizzardi
• Keywords: BALT 2006, Ontology, Ontology Representation Languages, Suitable General Ontology, Theoretical Computer Science