Principles of Best Practice I: Domain Ontology Design
Principles of Best Practice I: Domain Ontology Design
We introduce four ontology design principles: realism, perspectivalism, fallibilism, and adequatism. Realism is the view that reality exists independently of our ways of representing it. Perspectivalism is the view that there can be multiple equally correct ways of representing the same reality. Fallibilism is the view that all representations (thus: all theories, all ontologies) should be viewed as being revisable. Adequatism is the view that no one perspective on reality – for example one at the level of granularity of microphysics – is privileged over all others. Each rests on a certain view about how reality is structured and so best represented. Each therefore has consequences concerning how one should go about designing an ontology. We outline four further ontology design principles having to do with reuse, balancing utility and realism, open-endendness in the ontology design process, and “low-hanging fruit”. We provide on this basis an overview of the ontology design process.
Keywords: Principles of ontology design, realism, perspectivalism, fallibilism, adequatism, granularity, empty names
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