Description
Book SynopsisOntology is the philosophical discipline which aims to understand how things in the world are divided into categories and how these categories are related together. This is exactly what information scientists aim for in creating structured, automated representations, called ‘ontologies,’ for managing information in fields such as science, government, industry, and healthcare. Currently, these systems are designed in a variety of different ways, so they cannot share data with one another. They are often idiosyncratically structured, accessible only to those who created them, and unable to serve as inputs for automated reasoning. This volume shows, in a non-technical way and using examples from medicine and biology, how the rigorous application of theories and insights from philosophical ontology can improve the ontologies upon which information management depends.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: What is Ontology for? Katherine Munn Acknowledgments 1. Bioinformatics and Philosophy Barry Smith and Bert Klagges 2. What Is Formal Ontology? Boris Hennig 3. A Primer on Knowledge Management and Ontological Engineering Pierre Grenon
