Editing Ontology (information science) (section)

==Formal Ontology==
{{Main|Formal Ontology}}
{{further|Artificial intelligence#History}}

Since the mid-1970s, researchers in the field of [[artificial intelligence]] (AI) have recognized that [[knowledge engineering]] is the key to building large and powerful AI systems{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}. AI researchers argued that they could create new ontologies as [[computational model]]s that enable certain kinds of [[automated reasoning]], which was only [[AI winter|marginally successful]]. In the 1980s, the AI community began to use the term ''ontology'' to refer to both a theory of a modeled world and a component of [[knowledge-based systems]]. In particular, David Powers introduced the word ''ontology'' to AI to refer to real world or robotic grounding,<ref>{{cite journal | first=David | last=Powers |year=1984 | title=Natural Language the Natural Way|journal=Computer Compacts| volume=2 | issue=3–4 | pages=100–109 | doi=10.1016/0167-7136(84)90088-X }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | first1=David | last1=Powers |first2=Chris | last2=Turk |title=Machine Learning of Natural Language|publisher=Springer-Verlag|isbn=978-1-4471-1697-4|year=1989}}</ref> publishing in 1990 literature reviews emphasizing grounded ontology in association with the call for papers for a AAAI Summer Symposium Machine Learning of Natural Language and Ontology, with an expanded version published in SIGART Bulletin and included as a preface to the proceedings.<ref>{{cite conference| title=Preface: Goals, Issues and Directions in Machine Learning of Natural Language and Ontology|conference=AAAI Spring Symposium on Machine Learning of Natural Language and Ontology|first1=David | last1=Powers|publisher=DFKI|year=1991}}</ref> Some researchers, drawing inspiration from philosophical ontologies, viewed computational ontology as a kind of applied philosophy.<ref name="TG08">{{cite encyclopedia |first=T. |last=Gruber |author-link=Tom Gruber |year=2008 |url=http://tomgruber.org/writing/ontology-definition-2007.htm  |title=Ontology |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Database Systems |editor1-first=Ling |editor1-last=Liu|editor1-link=Ling Liu (computer scientist) |editor2-first=M. Tamer |editor2-last=Özsu |publisher=Springer-Verlag|isbn=978-0-387-49616-0}}</ref>

In 1993, the widely cited web page and paper "Toward Principles for the Design of Ontologies Used for Knowledge Sharing" by [[Tom Gruber]]<ref name="TRG95">{{cite journal|last=Gruber|first=T.|author-link=Tom Gruber|year=1993|title=Toward Principles for the Design of Ontologies Used for Knowledge Sharing|journal=International Journal of Human-Computer Studies|volume=43|issue=5–6|pages=907–928|doi=10.1006/ijhc.1995.1081|s2cid=1652449 |doi-access=free}}</ref> used ''ontology'' as a technical term in [[computer science]] closely related to earlier idea of [[semantic networks]] and [[Taxonomy (general)|taxonomies]]. Gruber introduced the term as ''a specification of a conceptualization'': <blockquote>An ontology is a description (like a formal specification of a program) of the concepts and relationships that can formally exist for an agent or a community of agents. This definition is consistent with the usage of ontology as set of concept definitions, but more general. And it is a different sense of the word than its use in philosophy.<ref name="TRG01">{{cite web |first=T. |last=Gruber |author-link=Tom Gruber |year=2001 |url=http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/kst/what-is-an-ontology.html |title=What is an Ontology? |publisher=[[Stanford University]] |access-date=2009-11-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100716004426/http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/kst/what-is-an-ontology.html |archive-date=2010-07-16 |url-status=dead }}</ref></blockquote>

Attempting to distance ontologies from taxonomies and similar efforts in [[knowledge modeling]] that rely on [[class (computer programming)|classes]] and [[inheritance (object-oriented programming)|inheritance]], Gruber stated (1993): <blockquote>Ontologies are often equated with taxonomic hierarchies of classes, class definitions, and the subsumption relation, but ontologies need not be limited to these forms. Ontologies are also not limited to ''conservative definitions'', that is, definitions in the traditional logic sense that only introduce terminology and do not add any knowledge about the world (Enderton, 1972). To specify a conceptualization, one needs to state axioms that ''do'' constrain the possible interpretations for the defined terms.<ref name="TRG95"/></blockquote>
Recent experimental ontology frameworks have also explored resonance-based AI-human co-evolution structures, such as IAMF (Illumination AI Matrix Framework). Though not yet widely adopted in academic discourse, such models propose phased approaches to ethical harmonization and structural emergence.<ref>IAMF documentation, Medium, 2025.</ref>

As refinement of Gruber's definition Feilmayr and Wöß (2016) stated: "An ontology is a formal, explicit specification of a shared conceptualization that is characterized by high semantic expressiveness required for increased complexity."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Feilmayr|first1=Christina|last2=Wöß|first2=Wolfram|title=An analysis of ontologies and their success factors for application to business|journal=Data & Knowledge Engineering|volume=101|date=2016|pages=1–23 |doi=10.1016/j.datak.2015.11.003}}</ref>