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Plural
ontologies
1
the branch of philosophy that is concerned with concepts such as existence, being, and reality
- Ontology explores questions about what exists, how entities relate to one another, and the fundamental nature of reality.
- In ontology, philosophers inquire into the nature of being, distinguishing between different categories of existence and examining the properties of entities.
- Ontology seeks to uncover the ultimate nature of reality, addressing questions about the nature of existence, identity, and change.
- The study of ontology has deep roots in Western philosophy, with ancient thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle engaging in metaphysical inquiries about the nature of being.
- In contemporary philosophy, ontology intersects with other disciplines such as logic, metaphysics, and epistemology, shaping our understanding of the fundamental structure of reality.
2
(in computer science) a structured and comprehensive representation of a knowledge domain, typically hierarchical, specifying entities and the relationships between them
- The software uses an ontology to organize medical terms and their relationships.
- Researchers built an ontology to model the structure of a legal database.
- Ontology allows artificial intelligence systems to reason about concepts in a domain.
- The project's ontology defines all relevant entities in the supply chain.
- By using ontology, the system can infer relationships between complex data points.