Ontology in Knowledge Representation

Abstract

The categorization of entities into classes such as object, plant, animal, or human reflects ontological structure. Ontological structure can be represented by inheritance trees which are orthogonal to more conventional "isa" inheritance trees. Given ontological structure we can define paradigmatic transitions, such as that from caterpillar to butterfly, and ontological transitions, such as that from living to dead. These concepts are exemplified with examples from everyday knowledge and from the world of computer integrated manufacturing. A final section discusses the implications of ontological representation for representation of scientific concepts.

Keywords: ontology, assignment, classification, categorization, CIM, paradigm, inheritance