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Summa Contra Ontologiam

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Current Trends in Database Technology – EDBT 2006 (EDBT 2006)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 4254))

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Abstract

This paper is a critical analysis of the concept of ontology thus as it is used in contemporary computing science. It identifies three main problems with such a concept, two of which are intrinsic to it and one of which is extrinsic, so to speak, being related to the use that of ontology is made in applications.

The first problem with ontology is that the only accepted definition of its main artifact is teleological rather than structural as it would be proper in computing science. The second problem is that claiming that ontology is in any way a semantic discipline requires such a limited and outdated notion of semantic to be to all practical purposes useless. The third and final problem is that the limitations and misconceptions of ontology might make it a limiting factor, rather than a help, for many of the applications for which it is sought.

The article concludes that a profound reconsideration of the relation between computers and semantics might be overdue.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain, and University of California, San Diego, USA

    Simone Santini

Authors
  1. Simone Santini
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technische Universität München, Germany

    Torsten Grust

  2. International University in Germany, Germany

    Hagen Höpfner

  3. University of the Basque Country,  

    Arantza Illarramendi

  4. University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany

    Stefan Jablonski

  5. Università di Milano, Italy

    Marco Mesiti

  6. University of Erlangen-Nurmberg, Germany

    Sascha Müller

  7. Institut für Informatik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Oettingenstr. 67, 80538, München, Germany

    Paula-Lavinia Patranjan

  8. Dept. of Computer Science and Automation, TU Ilmenau

    Kai-Uwe Sattler

  9. Faculty of Computer Science, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Germany

    Myra Spiliopoulou

  10. Université de Mons-Hainaut, Mons, Belgium

    Jef Wijsen

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© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Santini, S. (2006). Summa Contra Ontologiam. In: Grust, T., et al. Current Trends in Database Technology – EDBT 2006. EDBT 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 4254. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11896548_37

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11896548_37

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-46788-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-46790-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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