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Applied ontology

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This article is about the application of philosophical ontology. For the term in computer science, see ontology (information science).

Applied ontology is the application of Ontology for practical purposes. This can involve employing ontological methods or resources to specific domains,[1] such as management, relationships, biomedicine, information science or geography.[2][3] Alternatively, applied ontology can aim more generally at developing improved methodologies for recording and organizing knowledge.[4]

Much[quantify] work in applied ontology is carried out within the framework of the Semantic Web.[5][6] Ontologies can structure data and add useful semantic content to it, such as definitions of classes and relations between entities, including subclass relations. The semantic web makes use of languages designed to allow for ontological content, including the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL).

Applying ontology to relationships

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The challenge of applying ontology is ontology's emphasis on a world view orthogonal to epistemology. The emphasis is on being rather than on doing (as implied by "applied") or on knowing. This is explored by philosophers and pragmatists like Fernando Flores and Martin Heidegger.

One way in which that emphasis plays out is in the concept of "speech acts": acts of promising, ordering, apologizing, requesting, inviting or sharing. The study of these acts from an ontological perspective is one of the driving forces behind relationship-oriented applied ontology.[7] This can involve concepts championed by ordinary language philosophers like Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Applying ontology can also involve looking at the relationship between a person's world and that person's actions. The context or clearing is highly influenced by the being of the subject or the field of being itself. This view is highly influenced by the philosophy of phenomenology,[8] the works of Heidegger, and others.[9][10]

Ontological perspectives

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Social scientists adopt a number of approaches to ontology.[11] Some of these are:[12]

  1. Realism - the idea that facts are "out there" just waiting to be discovered;
  2. Empiricism - the idea that we can observe the world and evaluate those observations in relation to facts;
  3. Positivism - which focuses on the observations themselves, attending more to claims about facts than to facts themselves;
  4. Grounded theory - which seeks to derive theories from facts;
  5. Engaged theory - which moves across different levels of interpretation, linking different empirical questions to ontological understandings;[13]
  6. Postmodernism - which regards facts as fluid and elusive, and recommends focusing only on observational claims.

Data ontology

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Main article: Ontology (information science)

Ontologies can be used for structuring data in a machine-readable manner.[14] In this context, an ontology is a controlled vocabulary of classes that can be placed in hierarchical relations with each other.[15] These classes can represent entities in the real world which data is about. Data can then be linked to the formal structure of these ontologies to aid dataset interoperability, along with retrieval and discovery of information.[16][17] The classes in an ontology can be limited to a relatively narrow domain (such as an ontology of occupations),[18] or expansively cover all of reality with highly general classes (such as in Basic Formal Ontology).[15]

Applied ontology is a quickly growing field. It has found major applications in areas such as biological research,[19] artificial intelligence,[20] banking,[21] healthcare,[22] and defense.[23]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Sadegh-Zadeh, Kazem (6 April 2015) [2012]. "22.1.2 Applied Ontology". Handbook of Analytic Philosophy of Medicine. Volume 119 of Philosophy and Medicine (2 ed.). Dordrecht: Springer. p. 760. ISBN 9789401795791. Retrieved 4 July 2023. Applied ontology, also called domain ontology, is concerned (i) with the question of what entities exist in a particular domain, for example, in the domain of a scientific branch such as biology, or even in the more specialized domain of a scientific theory such as the theory of active immunity; and (ii) with the formal taxonomy of those entities.
  2. ^ Hoehndorf, Robert; Schofield, Paul; Gkoutos, Georgios (2015). "The role of ontologies in biological and biomedical research: a functional perspective". Briefings in Bioinformatics. 16 (6): 1069–1080. doi:10.1093/bib/bbv011. hdl:10754/543733. PMC 4652617. PMID 25863278.
  3. ^ "W3C Geospatial Ontologies". w3. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  4. ^ Munn, Katherine (2 May 2013) [2008]. "Introduction: What is Ontology for?". In Munn, Katherine; Smith, Barry (eds.). Applied Ontology: An Introduction. Metaphysical Research, Volume 9. Heusenstamm, Hesse: ontos verlag. p. 7 - 8. ISBN 9783110324860. Retrieved 4 July 2023. The authors' goal in producing this book has been to show how philosophy and information science can learn from one another, so as to create better methodologies for recording and organizing our knowledge about the world.
  5. ^ "What are Ontologies?". ontotext. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  6. ^ Joury, Ari. "How Ontology and Data Go Hand-in-Hand". built in. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  7. ^ Rubin, Harriet (1998-12-21). "The Power of Words". Fast Company. ISSN 1085-9241. Archived from the original on 2003-04-22. Retrieved 2010-03-24. Talk all you want to, Flores says, but if you want to act powerfully, you need to master 'speech acts': language rituals that build trust between colleagues and customers, word practices that open your eyes to new possibilities. Speech acts are powerful because most of the actions that people engage in -- in business, in marriage, in parenting -- are carried out through conversation.
  8. ^ "Phenomenology". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University. 2013-12-16.
  9. ^ McCarl, Steven R.; Zaffron, Steve; Nielsen, Joyce McCarl and Kennedy, Sally Lewis, "The Promise of Philosophy and the Landmark Forum". Contemporary Philosophy, Vol. XXIII, No. 1 & 2, Jan/Feb & Mar/Apr 2001 doi:10.2139/ssrn.278955
  10. ^ Hyde, Bruce. "An Ontological Approach to Education" (PDF). Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  11. ^ Raddon, Arwen. "Epistemology & Ontology in Social Science Research" (PDF). le.ac.uk/. University of Leicester. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  12. ^ "Research Methodology: Ontology". Research Methodologies. research-methodology.net. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  13. ^ James, Paul (2006). Globalism, Nationalism, Tribalism: Bringing Theory Back In —Volume 2 of Towards a Theory of Abstract Community. London: Sage Publications.
  14. ^ Petkova, Teodora (16 March 2018). "Whose Meaning? Which Ontology?". ontotext. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  15. ^ a b Arp, Robert; Smith, Barry; Spear, Andrew D. (2015). Building ontologies with Basic Formal Ontology. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. p. ix. ISBN 978-0-262-52781-1.
  16. ^ Cruz, Isabel F.; Xiao, Huiyong (Dec 2005). "The Role of Ontologies in Data Integration". International Journal of Engineering Intelligent Systems for Electrical Engineering and Communications. 13 (4). Retrieved 12 May 2024.
  17. ^ Munir, Kamran; Amjum, M. Sheraz (July 2018). "The use of ontologies for effective knowledge modelling and information retrieval". Applied Computing and Informatics. 14 (2): 116–126. doi:10.1016/j.aci.2017.07.003. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
  18. ^ Beverley, John; Smith, Sam; Diller, Matthew; Duncan, William; Zheng, Jie; Judkins, John; Hogan, William; McGill, Robin; Dooley, Damion; He, Yongqun. "The Occupation Ontology (OccO): Building a Bridge between Global Occupational Standards" (PDF). CEUR Workshop Proceedings. 3637. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  19. ^ Smith B, Ashburner M, Rosse C, Bard J, Bug W, Ceusters W, et al. (November 2007). "The OBO Foundry: coordinated evolution of ontologies to support biomedical data integration". Nature Biotechnology. 25 (11): 1251–5. doi:10.1038/nbt1346. PMC 2814061. PMID 17989687.
  20. ^ "The Role of Ontology and Information Architecture in AI". EARLEY Information Science. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  21. ^ "Financial Regulation Ontology". Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  22. ^ Goyer, Francois; Fabry, Paul; Barton, Adrien; Ethier, Jean-François. "An ontology for healthcare systems" (PDF). CEUR Workshop Proceedings. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  23. ^ "DoDAF". defense.gov. DoD. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
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  • Graham, S. Scott (2015). The Politics of Pain Medicine: A Rhetorical-Ontological Inquiry. Chicago Scholarship Online. ISBN 9780226264059.
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