Re: [biont] Nice wikipedia page on ontology

Hmmm. Sure I wrote more than that in my original email. 

Yeah, Robert has my main beef which is the distinction between the
representation language and the representation itself. The use of
"algorithms" is clearly wrong and I don't think that an upper ontology
provides consistency checks, nor that an ontology needs one to be
formal. 

Still, it's an early wikipedia entry. These things often improve over
time. 

Phil

>>>>> "Robert" == Robert Stevens <robert.stevens@manchester.ac.uk> writes:

  Robert> 'd be inclined to agree with Phil. I don't where the bit
  Robert> about "algorithms" has come from. The other mistake, I
  Robert> think, is not to make the distinction between formality of
  Robert> language for representaiton and the formality of the
  Robert> ontology itself. The latter is, I think, a matter of the
  Robert> distinctions made. One can make an ontology in a formal
  Robert> language like owl, but still be informal in the ontological
  Robert> distinctions made.

  Robert> Formal ontological distinctions can be encapsulated in an
  Robert> upper level, but upper level otnoogies are not necessarily
  Robert> formal....

  Robert> Anyway, it is bad at almost any level

  Robert> Robert.
  Robert> ,At 13:55 24/01/2007, Phillip Lord wrote:

  >> >>>>> "Alan" == Alan Ruttenberg <alanruttenberg@gmail.com>
  >> >>>>> writes:
  >> 
  Alan> Start at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_Ontology
  >> 
  Alan> -Alan
  >> 
  >> 
  >> Well, it starts of with this....
  >> 
  >> "A Formal ontology is an ontology modeled by algorithms. Formal
  >> ontologies are founded upon a specific Formal Upper Level
  >> Ontology, which provides consistency checks for the entire
  >> ontology and, if applied properly, allows the modeler to avoid
  >> possibly erroneous ontological assumptions encountered in
  >> modeling large-scale ontologies. "
  >> 
  >> 
  >> 
  >> Almost none of which I would agree with.

-- 
Phillip Lord,                           Phone: +44 (0) 191 222 7827
Lecturer in Bioinformatics,             Email: phillip.lord@newcastle.ac.uk
School of Computing Science,            http://homepages.cs.ncl.ac.uk/phillip.lord
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NE1 7RU

Received on Wednesday, 24 January 2007 16:58:01 UTC