Formal ontology

In philosophy, the term formal ontology is used to refer to an ontology defined by axioms in a formal language with the goal to provide an unbiased (domain- and application-independent) view on reality, which can help the modeler of domain- or application-specific ontologies (information science) to avoid possibly erroneous ontological assumptions encountered in modeling large-scale ontologies. By maintaining an independent view on reality a formal (upper level) ontology gains the following properties: Theories on how to conceptualize reality date back as far as Plato and Aristotle.

Formal ontology

In philosophy, the term formal ontology is used to refer to an ontology defined by axioms in a formal language with the goal to provide an unbiased (domain- and application-independent) view on reality, which can help the modeler of domain- or application-specific ontologies (information science) to avoid possibly erroneous ontological assumptions encountered in modeling large-scale ontologies. By maintaining an independent view on reality a formal (upper level) ontology gains the following properties: Theories on how to conceptualize reality date back as far as Plato and Aristotle.