ontology
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: computer
computing
engineering
human-sciences
information-science
logic
mathematics
natural-sciences
philosophy
physical-sciences
science
sciences
Etymology: Learned borrowing from New Latin ontologia (1606, Ogdoas Scholastica, by Jacob Lorhard (Lorhardus)), from Ancient Greek ὤν, ὄντος (ṓn, óntos, “being”), present participle of εἰμί (eimí, “being, existing, essence”) + λόγος (lógos, “account”). By surface analysis, onto- + -logy.
First known English use 1663: Archelogia philosophica nova; or, New principles of Philosophy. Containing Philosophy in general, Metaphysicks or Ontology, Dynamilogy or a Discourse of Power, Religio Philosophi or Natural Theology, Physicks or Natural philosophy, by Gideon Harvey (1636–1702), London, Thomson, 1663.
Popularized as a philosophical term by German philosopher Christian Wolff (1679–1754).
Inflected forms:
form: ontologies
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: The branch of metaphysics that addresses the nature or essential characteristics of being and of things that exist; the study of being qua being.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: [Martin] Heidegger's concern […] was with ontology, the nature of beings, above all humans. The central question for him was "What is being? What is it for something to be?" He tackled this question not by way of the sciences, but by way of an examination of our prescientific daily life. We are, he argued, not cut off from the world by our mental processes: we are "in the world", in direct contact with our surroundings.
gloss: In a subject view, or a world view, the set of conceptual or material things or classes of things that are recognised as existing, or are assumed to exist in context, and their interrelations; in a body of theory, the ontology comprises the domain of discourse, the things that are defined as existing, together with whatever emerges from their mutual implications.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Meronym: taxonomy
Do you believe in ghosts? Then ghosts are in your ontology, along with tables and chairs and songs and vacations, and snow, and all the rest. It has proved more than convenient to extend the term "ontology" beyond this primary meaning and use it for the set of "things" that an animal can recognize and behave appropriately with regard to (whether or not animals can properly be said to have beliefs) and — more recently — the set of "things" a computer program has to be able to deal with to do its job (whether or not it can properly be said to have beliefs). Vacations are not in the ontology of a polar bear, but snow is, and so are seals. Snow is probably not in the ontology of a manatee, but outboard-motor propellers may well be, along with seaweed and fish and other manatees. The GPS system in your car handles one-way streets, left and right turns, speed limits, and the current velocity of your car (if it isn't zero, it may not let you put in a new target address), but its ontology also includes a number of satellites, as well as signals to and from those satellites, which it doesn't bother you with, but needs if it is to do its job.
Research centered on ontology and security argues that the far-right utilizes cultural anxieties to recruit members of dominant cultures within a society who feel left behind in some way.
gloss: The theory of a particular philosopher or school of thought concerning the fundamental types of entity in the universe.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: The answer to the controversial question of whether Aristotle's ontology includes non-substantial particulars, then, is that it does.
gloss: A logical system involving theory of classes, developed by Stanislaw Lesniewski (1886-1939).
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A structure of concepts or entities within a domain, organized by relationships; a system model.
pos: noun
tags: countable
Related words: ontic
ontically
ontonomy
Derived words: causal ontology
formal ontology
metaontology
ontologic
ontological
ontologise
ontologist
ontologistic
ontologize
ontology alignment
ontology engineering
subontology
Translations: