Aristotelian Definitions

(5th-July-2020)

• Categorizing objects, the basis for modern ontologies, has a long history. Aristotle(350 B.C.) suggested the definition of a class C in terms of

• Genus: a superclass of C. The plural of genus is genera.

• Differentia: the properties that make members of the class C different from other members of the superclass of C.

Description Logic is shown as following.

• A Uniform Resource Identifier has some meaning because someone published that it has that meaning and because people use it with that meaning. This works, but we want more. We would like to have meanings that allow a computer to do some inference.

• Modern ontology languages such as OWL are based on description logics. A description logic is used to describe classes, properties, and individuals. One of the main ideas behind a description logic is to separate

• a terminological knowledge base that describes the terminology, which should remain constant as the domain being modeled changes, and

• an assertional knowledge base that describes what is true in some domain at some point in time.