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RE: [ontac-dev] What is "An Ontology"?

To: ONTAC Taxonomy-Ontology Development Discussion <ontac-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "Smith, Barry" <phismith@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2006 19:33:39 +0100
Message-id: <7.0.1.0.2.20060120182316.046a1fc0@xxxxxxxxxxx>
At 04:34 PM 1/20/2006, you wrote:
>I thought it was time I tried to offend you both ;), with my usual
>definition of ontology:
>
>An ontology defines the terms used to describe and represent an area of
>knowledge (subject matter). An ontology also is the model (set of
>concepts) for the meaning of those terms. An ontology thus defines the
>vocabulary and the meaning of that vocabulary.    (01)

It seems that this means ontology a branch of epistemology (= the 
theory of knowledge)    (02)

Better, would be, I think:    (03)

An ontology defines the terms used to describe and represent THE 
TYPES OF ENTITIES IN an area of
knowledge (subject matter) AND THE RELATIONS BETWEEN THESE ENTITIES. 
An ontology thus defines the
vocabulary and the DOMAIN OF ENTITIES AND RELATIONS TO WHICH that 
vocabulary REFERS.    (04)

BS      (05)



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