Beyond concepts: Ontology as reality representation

In Achille C. Varzi & Laure Vieu (eds.), Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS). pp. 1-12 (2004)
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Abstract

The present essay is devoted to the application of ontology in support of research in the natural sciences. It defends the thesis that ontologies developed for such purposes should be understood as having as their subject matter, not concepts, but rather the universals and particulars which exist in reality and are captured in scientific laws. We outline the benefits of a view along these lines by showing how it yields rigorous formal definitions of the foundational relations used in many influential ontologies, illustrating our results by reference to examples drawn from the domain of the life sciences.

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Barry Smith
University at Buffalo

Citations of this work

Against Fantology.Barry Smith - 2005 - In Johann C. Marek & Maria E. Reicher (eds.), Experience and Analysis. Vienna: HPT&ÖBV. pp. 153-170.
Strategies for Referent Tracking in Electronic Health Records.Werner Ceusters & Barry Smith - 2006 - Journal of Biomedical Informatics 39 (3):362-378.
The philosophy of computer science.Raymond Turner - 2013 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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References found in this work

A Theory of Granular Partitions.Thomas Bittner & Barry Smith - 2003 - In M. Duckham, M. F. Goodchild & M. F. Worboys (eds.), Foundations of Geographic Information Science. London: Taylor & Francis. pp. 117-151.
The Role of Foundational Relations in the Alignment of Biomedical Ontologies.Barry Smith & Cornelius Rosse - 2004 - In M. Fieschi, E. Coiera & Y.-C. J. Li (eds.), Medinfo. IOS Press. pp. 444-448.

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