Ontology

Full Title or Meme

The branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being aka a specification of a conceptualization of reality.

Context

• Whereas the origin of the word was used for the discussion of the essence of things in the real world, in computer science it is used for a collection of abstract ideas in any specific domain.
• Some in the field confuse these terms, but convergence on the real meaning is not likely:
  • Data Dictionary - mostly used by data base architects.
  • Taxonomy - used to categorize objects into distinct taxa.
  • Ontology - used to add significance to a data dictionary.

Problems

• Most of Philosophy is arguing about the meaning and use of words. The idea that there will be a single ontology of any domain in computer science is absurd, which doesn't deter anyone from creating new ones all the time.