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Applied ontology
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<h2 id="applying-ontology-to-relationships">Applying ontology to relationships</h2> <p>The challenge of applying ontology is ontology's emphasis on a <a href="/facts/World_view/ppdl5PhI">world view</a> <a href="/facts/Orthogonal/JVIjYPog">orthogonal</a> to <a href="/facts/Epistemology/NsDwpcYH">epistemology</a>. The emphasis is on being rather than on doing (as implied by "<a href="/facts/Applied_science/13h5uYCH">applied</a>") or on <a href="/facts/Knowledge/joozoaup">knowing</a>. This is explored by philosophers and pragmatists like <a href="/facts/Fernando_Flores/p6epl18K">Fernando Flores</a> and <a href="/facts/Martin_Heidegger/VSvHqhcj">Martin Heidegger</a>. </p><p>One way in which that emphasis plays out is in the concept of "<a href="/facts/Speech_acts/l11PGwQu">speech acts</a>": acts of promising, ordering, apologizing, requesting, inviting or sharing. The study of these acts from an ontological perspective is one of the driving forces behind relationship-oriented applied ontology.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> This can involve concepts championed by <a href="/facts/Ordinary-language_philosophy/pA43hoje">ordinary language</a> philosophers like <a href="/facts/Ludwig_Wittgenstein/wN9bAgMz">Ludwig Wittgenstein</a>. </p><p>Applying ontology can also involve looking at the relationship between a person's world and that person's actions. The context or <a href="/facts/Heideggerian_terminology/btTrgw73">clearing</a> is highly influenced by the being of the subject or the field of <a href="/facts/Category_of_being/xG73S2Af">being</a> itself. This view is highly influenced by the philosophy of <a href="/facts/Phenomenology_(philosophy)/AILzLkKx">phenomenology</a>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a> the works of Heidegger, and others.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="ontological-perspectives">Ontological perspectives</h2> <p>Social scientists adopt a number of approaches to ontology.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a> Some of these are:<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a> </p> <ol><li><a href="/facts/Scientific_realism/NDVX9pIT">Realism</a> - the idea that facts are "out there" just waiting to be discovered;</li> <li><a href="/facts/Empiricism/f68IpCeE">Empiricism</a> - the idea that we can observe the world and evaluate those observations in relation to facts;</li> <li><a href="/facts/Positivism/on887AuJ">Positivism</a> - which focuses on the observations themselves, attending more to claims about facts than to facts themselves;</li> <li><a href="/facts/Grounded_theory/zDQK1tD0">Grounded theory</a> - which seeks to derive theories from facts;</li> <li><a href="/facts/Engaged_theory/9ctcrFNC">Engaged theory</a> - which moves across different levels of interpretation, linking different empirical questions to ontological understandings;<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Postmodernism/aBgbw8QJ">Postmodernism</a> - which regards facts as fluid and elusive, and recommends focusing only on observational claims.</li></ol> <h2 id="data-ontology">Data ontology</h2> <p class="note">Main article: <a href="/facts/Ontology_(information_science)/SQlhl6lp">Ontology (information science)</a></p> <p>Ontologies can be used for structuring data in a machine-readable manner.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a> In this context, an ontology is a controlled vocabulary of classes that can be placed in hierarchical relations with each other.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a> These classes can represent entities in the real world which data is about. Data can then be linked to the formal structure of these ontologies to aid dataset interoperability, along with retrieval and discovery of information.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16"><sup>16</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17"><sup>17</sup></a> The classes in an ontology can be limited to a relatively narrow domain (such as an ontology of <a href="/facts/Work_(human_activity)/UA8TczRb">occupations</a>),<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:18" href="#fn:18"><sup>18</sup></a> or expansively cover all of reality with highly general classes (such as in <a href="/facts/Basic_Formal_Ontology/tYzrG3co">Basic Formal Ontology</a>).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:19" href="#fn:19"><sup>19</sup></a> </p><p>Applied ontology is a quickly growing field. It has found major applications in areas such as <a href="/facts/Biology/1M1ee3pB">biological research</a>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:20" href="#fn:20"><sup>20</sup></a> <a href="/facts/Artificial_intelligence/lJGauQwX">artificial intelligence</a>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:21" href="#fn:21"><sup>21</sup></a> <a href="/facts/Bank/l7VsKwas">banking</a>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:22" href="#fn:22"><sup>22</sup></a> <a href="/facts/Health_care/LPS1WKbI">healthcare</a>,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:23" href="#fn:23"><sup>23</sup></a> and <a href="/facts/Military/kgNmLUnN">defense</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:24" href="#fn:24"><sup>24</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="see-also">See also</h2> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Foundation_ontology/Ij1JI4zz">Foundation ontology</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Applied_philosophy/zAH5PVD6">Applied philosophy</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/John_Searle/YDMljSH7">John Searle</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Bertrand_Russell/SRpwNX2U">Bertrand Russell</a></li> <li><a href="/facts/Barry_Smith_(ontologist)/hDtrDcDo">Barry Smith</a>, ontologist with a focus on biomedicine</li> <li><a href="/facts/Nicola_Guarino/HSjzeufJ">Nicola Guarino</a>, researcher in the formal ontology of information systems</li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li>Graham, S. Scott (2015). <i></i>The Politics of Pain Medicine: A Rhetorical-Ontological Inquiry<i></i>. Chicago Scholarship Online. <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780226264059.</li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Sadegh-Zadeh, Kazem (6 April 2015) [2012]. "22.1.2 Applied Ontology". Handbook of Analytic Philosophy of Medicine. Volume 119 of Philosophy and Medicine (2 ed.). Dordrecht: Springer. p. 760. ISBN 9789401795791. Retrieved 4 July 2023. Applied ontology, also called domain ontology, is concerned (i) with the question of what entities exist in a particular domain, for example, in the domain of a scientific branch such as biology, or even in the more specialized domain of a scientific theory such as the theory of active immunity; and (ii) with the formal taxonomy of those entities. <a href="9789401795791" target="_blank">9789401795791</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Hoehndorf, Robert; Schofield, Paul; Gkoutos, Georgios (2015). "The role of ontologies in biological and biomedical research: a functional perspective". Briefings in Bioinformatics. 16 (6): 1069–1080. doi:10.1093/bib/bbv011. hdl:10754/543733. PMC 4652617. PMID 25863278. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4652617" target="_blank">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4652617</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>"W3C Geospatial Ontologies". w3. Retrieved 11 June 2024. <a href="https://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/geo/XGR-geo-ont/" target="_blank">https://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/geo/XGR-geo-ont/</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>Munn, Katherine (2 May 2013) [2008]. "Introduction: What is Ontology for?". In Munn, Katherine; Smith, Barry (eds.). Applied Ontology: An Introduction. Metaphysical Research, Volume 9. Heusenstamm, Hesse: ontos verlag. p. 7 - 8. ISBN 9783110324860. Retrieved 4 July 2023. The authors' goal in producing this book has been to show how philosophy and information science can learn from one another, so as to create better methodologies for recording and organizing our knowledge about the world. <a href="9783110324860" target="_blank">9783110324860</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>"What are Ontologies?". ontotext. Retrieved 11 June 2024. <a href="https://www.ontotext.com/knowledgehub/fundamentals/what-are-ontologies/" target="_blank">https://www.ontotext.com/knowledgehub/fundamentals/what-are-ontologies/</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Joury, Ari. "How Ontology and Data Go Hand-in-Hand". built in. Retrieved 11 June 2024. <a href="https://builtin.com/data-science/ontology" target="_blank">https://builtin.com/data-science/ontology</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Rubin, Harriet (1998-12-21). "The Power of Words". Fast Company. ISSN 1085-9241. Archived from the original on 2003-04-22. Retrieved 2010-03-24. Talk all you want to, Flores says, but if you want to act powerfully, you need to master 'speech acts': language rituals that build trust between colleagues and customers, word practices that open your eyes to new possibilities. Speech acts are powerful because most of the actions that people engage in -- in business, in marriage, in parenting -- are carried out through conversation. <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/21/flores.html" target="_blank">http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/21/flores.html</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>"Phenomenology". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 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