Upper and domain ontologies

Hi all:

I have the following doubt involving upper ontologies and domain
ontologies. Upper ontologies are often described using FOL and modal
logics because they deal with general semantics and intended meaning.
Its implementation in the Semantic Web is in DL, much less expressive.
For example, DOLCE UltraLite is a implementation in DL of the upper
ontology DOLCE. Therefore, if I develop a domain ontology, which one of
the following approaches is the proper choice?

(1) Develop the domain ontology in DL, importing a well-known DL
implementation of the upper ontology.

(2) Develop the domain ontology in DL, importing the upper FOL ontology.
Then, create a DL implementation importing upper concepts from a
well-known DL implementation.

IMHO, the second approach guarantees that the concepts of the domain
ontology are consistent with the intended meaning of the upper ontology.
However, available tools, such as Protege, are focused in the first
approach. I think these tools makes easy to develop domain ontologies
that claim to be based in the upper ontology but can violate some of its
axioms that can not be expressed in DL.

This question is relevant in my field (GIS). I realize that we are using
more and more the layered approach to develop domain ontologies, and I
have the impression that we are just cherry picking the upper ontologies
(the approach 1) rather than develop something with a shared semantics
(the approach 2).

Many thanks for considering my questions.

Best,

fjlopez

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Francisco J. Lopez-Pellicer
IAAA, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain

Received on Sunday, 29 November 2009 23:10:32 UTC