Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Ontological Background

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Philosophy of Geo-Ontologies

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Geography ((BRIEFSGEOGRAPHY))

  • 286 Accesses

Abstract

Chapter 1 showed that applied ontology of geography includes four different areas of research, namely: IT/computer ontology, philosophical ontology, empirical geography, and academic geography. In this chapter, we go deep into the analysis of the (kinds of) ontologies behind applied ontology of geography. Sections 2.1–2.3 explores the domain of IT/computer science, within which ontologies are generally conceived as explicit specifications of shared conceptualizations. Sections 2.4 and 2.5 deal with philosophy, more precisely, with the recent proliferation of ontological research in the analytic debate. Finally, Sects. 2.6–2.10 discuss the advancements of ontology of geography, that is that part of philosophical ontology mainly focused on: (1) establishing what geographical entities exist, (2) developing a theory of spatial representation, and (3) explaining how the geographic descriptions of reality emerging from common sense can be combined with those derived from academic geography. This preliminary analysis is meant to provide a helpful framework showing the importance of geographical common-sense conceptualizations and defining how non-expert subjects conceptualize geospatial phenomena in response to a series of different geographical phrased elicitations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Goy and Magro (2015), p. 7463.

  2. 2.

    The W3C16 has defined and still maintains several standards for the Semantic Web, among which there are two formal languages for ontology specification: RDF Schema (RDFS) and Web Ontology Language (OWL). RDFS is a specification enabling the definition of RDF vocabularies (a general‐purpose language for representing information on the Web). OWL is an ontology language for the Semantic Web with formally defined meaning, usually exploited to express ontologies.

  3. 3.

    The term “reality” is used in a broad sense, which includes, for example, physical entities, counterfactual ones, imaginary entities, and so forth (Goy and Magro 2015, p. 7457).

  4. 4.

    Other lists of definitions of ontology in computer science can be found in Gómez-Pérez et al. (2004), Bullinger (2008), Jaziri and Gargouri (2010).

  5. 5.

    See Uschold (1996), Fensel (2001), Zelewski et al. (2001), Mizoguchi (2003).

  6. 6.

    See Borst (1997), Guarino (1998), Studer et al. (1998), Uschold (1998), Fikes et al. (1999), Sowa (2000).

  7. 7.

    See Studer et al. (1998).

  8. 8.

    See Guarino and Giaretta (1995), Uschold and Grueninger (1996), Guarino (1998), Goy and Magro (2015).

  9. 9.

    See Zelewski et al. (2001), Hesse (2002), Mizoguchi (2003), Krcmar (2005).

  10. 10.

    See in particular Martin and Heil (1999).

  11. 11.

    See Strawson (1959), Jackson (1998).

  12. 12.

    See Lewis (1986).

  13. 13.

    See Armstrong (1989, 1997).

  14. 14.

    See Körner (1974, 1984), Lowe (2006).

  15. 15.

    See Mulligan (2000), Simons (1987, 1994), Smith (1997).

  16. 16.

    See Chisholm (1976, 1984, 1996).

  17. 17.

    See Bergmann (1967), Grossmann (1992), Tegtmeier (1992).

  18. 18.

    See Ferraris (2008, pp. 16–7); Bianchi and Bottani (2003).

  19. 19.

    See Berto (2010).

  20. 20.

    See Ferraris (2008).

  21. 21.

    In regard to this category, the authors emphasized that geographers “are not studying geographical things as such things are conceptualized by naïve subjects. Rather, they are studying the domain of what can be portrayed on maps” (Smith and Mark 2001, p. 609).

References

  • Armstrong DM (1989) Universals: an opinionated introduction. Westview Press, Boulder

    Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong DM (1997) A world of states of affairs. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Battig WF, Montague WE (1968) Category norms for verbal items in 56 categories: a replication and extension of the Connecticut norms. J Exp Psychol Monograph 80(2):1–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergmann G (1967) Realism XE “Realism” . University of Wisconsin Press, Madison

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernaras A, Laresgoiti I, Corera J (1996) Building and reusing ontologies for electrical network applications. In: Proceedings of the European conference on artificial intelligence (ECAI_96), pp 298–302. Budapest, Hungary

    Google Scholar 

  • Berto F (2010) L’esistenza non è logica. Laterza, Roma, Bari

    Google Scholar 

  • Bianchi C, Bottani A (eds) (2003) Significato e ontologia. Franco Angeli, Milano

    Google Scholar 

  • Borst WN (1997) Construction of engineering ontologies. Centre for telematica and information technology. University of Tweenty, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Google Scholar 

  • Bullinger A (2008) Innovation and ontologies. Structuring the early stages of innovation management. Gabler, Wiesbaden

    Google Scholar 

  • Chisholm RM (1976) Person and object. Open Court, La Salle

    Google Scholar 

  • Chisholm RM (1984) The primacy of the intentional. Synthese 61:89–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chisholm RM (1996) A realistic theory of categories. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Cumpa J (2014) A materialist criterion of fundamentality. Am Philos Q 51(4):319–324

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Agostini F (2002) Che cosa è la filosofia analitica? In: D’Agostini F, Vassallo N (eds) Storia della filosofia analitica. Einaudi, Torino, pp 3–76

    Google Scholar 

  • Fensel D (2001) Ontologies: a silver bullet for knowledge management and electronic commerce. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ferraris M (ed) (2008) Storia dell’ontologia. Milano, Bompiani

    Google Scholar 

  • Fikes R, Farquhar A (1999) Distributed repositories of highly expressive reusable ontologies. IEEE Intell Syst 14(2):73–79

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geus K, Thiering M (2014) Common sense geography and mental modelling: Setting the stage. In: Geus K, Thiering M (eds) Features of common sense geography. Implicit knowledge structures in ancient geographical texts. LIT, Wien

    Google Scholar 

  • Gómez-Pérez A, Fernández-López M, Corcho O (2004) Ontological engineering: with examples from the areas of knowledge management, E-Commerce and the semantic web. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Goy A, Magro D (2015) What are ontologies useful for? Encyclopedia of information science and technology. IGI Global, pp 7456–7464

    Google Scholar 

  • Grossmann R (1992) Existence of the world: an introduction to ontology. Routledge, London, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Gruber TR (1993) A translation approach to portable ontology specifications. Knowl Acquis 5(2):199–220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guarino N (1998) Formal ontology and information systems. In: Proceedings of FOIS ’98. Trento, Italy. IOS Press, Amsterdam, pp 3–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Guarino N, Giaretta P (1995) Ontologies and knowledge bases—towards a terminological clarification. In: Mars NJ (ed) Towards very large knowledge bases—knowledge building and knowledge sharing. IOS Press, Amsterdam, pp 25–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Hesse W (2002) Ontologie(n). Informatik Spektrum 25(6):477–480

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horton R (1982) Tradition and modernity revisited. In: Hollis M, Luke S (eds) Rationality and relativism. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 201–260

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson G (1998) From metaphysics to ethics: a defence of conceptual analysis. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaziri W, Gargouri F (2010) Ontology theory, management and design: An overview and future directions. In: Gargouri F, Jaziri W (eds) Ontology theory, management and design: advanced tools and models. Information Science Reference, Hershey

    Google Scholar 

  • Krcmar H (2005) Informations management. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Körner S (ed) (1974) Practical reason. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Körner S (1984) Metaphysics: its structure and function. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis D (1986) On the plurality of worlds. Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Lowe EJ (2006) The four-category ontology: a metaphysical foundation for natural science. Clarendon Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Mark DM, Smith B, Tversky B (1999) Ontology and geographic objects: An empirical study of cognitive categorization. In: Freksa C, Mark DM (eds) Proceedings of spatial information theory. Cognitive and computational foundations of geographic information science. International conference COSIT’99 Stade, Germany. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp 283–298

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin CB, Heil J (1999) The ontological turn. In: French PA, Wettstein HK (eds) New directions in philosophy, midwest studies in philosophy, vol 23, pp 34–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Mizoguchi R (2003) Tutorial on ontological engineering: part 01: introduction to ontological engineering. N Gener Comput 21(4):365–384

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mulligan K (2000) Ontologie e Métaphysics. In: Engel P (ed) Précis de Philosophie analytique. Puf, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Neches R, Fikes RE, Finin T, Gruber TR, Senator T, Swartout WR (1991) Enabling technology for knowledge sharing. AI Mag 12(3):36–56

    Google Scholar 

  • Noy NF, McGuinness DL (2003) Ontology development 101: a guide to creating your first ontology. Stanford University, Stanford (CA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Quine WVO (1981) Theories and things. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Runggaldier E, Kanzian C (1998) Grundprobleme der analytischen ontologie. Verlag Ferdinand Schöning, Paderborn

    Google Scholar 

  • Sellars W (1963) Philosophy and the scientific image of man. In: Sellars W (ed) Science, perception, and reality. London, Routledge, Kegan Paul, pp 1–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Simons P (1987) Parts: an essay in ontology. Clarendon Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Simons P (1994) Particulars in particular clothing: three trope theories of substance. Res 54:553–575

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith B (1997) On substance, accidents and universals: in defence of a constituent ontology. Philos Pap 27:105–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith B (2004) Ontology. In: Floridi L (ed) The Blackwell guide to the philosophy of computing and information. Blackwell, Malden (MA), pp 155–166

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith B, Mark DM (2001) Geographical categories: an ontological investigation. Int J Geogr Inf Sci 15(7):591–612

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sowa JF (2000) Guided tour of ontology. http://www.jfsowa.com/ontology/guided.htm

  • Strawson P (1959) Individuals. An essay in descriptive metaphysics. Methuen, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Studer R, Benjamins VR, Fensel D (1998) Knowledge engineering: principles and methods. IEEE Trans Data Knowl Eng 25(1–2):161–197

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swartout B, Ramesh P, Knight K, Russ T (1997) Toward distributed use of large-scale ontologies. In: AAAI symposium on ontological engineering. Stanford, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Tegtmeier E (1992) Grundzüge einer kategorialen Ontologie: Dinge, Eigenschaften, Beziehungen, Sachverhalte. Alber, Freiburg, München

    Google Scholar 

  • Uschold M (1996) Building ontologies: towards a unified methodology. Technical Report of the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute, No. 197. Edinburgh, Scotland

    Google Scholar 

  • Uschold M (1998) Knowledge level modelling: concepts and terminology. Knowl Eng Rev 13(1):5–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uschold M, Grueninger M (1996) Ontologies: principles, methods and applications. Technical Report of the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute, No. 191. Scotland, Edinburgh

    Google Scholar 

  • Uschold M, Jasper R (1999) A framework for understanding and classifying ontology applications. In: Proceedings of the IJCAI99 workshop on ontologies and problem-solving method. Stockholm, Sweden

    Google Scholar 

  • Varzi AC (2005) Ontologia. Laterza, Rome, Bari

    Google Scholar 

  • Varzi AC (2011a) On the boundary between material and formal ontology. In: Smith B, Mizoguchi R, Nakagawa S (eds) Interdisciplinary ontology, vol 3, pp 3–8. Keio University, Tokyo

    Google Scholar 

  • Varzi AC (2011b) On doing ontology without metaphysics. Philos Perspect 25:407–423

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zelewski S, Schuette R, Siedentopf J (2001) Ontologien zur Repraesentation von Domaenen. In Schreyoegg G (ed) Wissen in Unternehmen. Konzepte, Massnahmen, Methoden. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin, pp 183–221

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Science of Cultural Heritage, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy

    Timothy Tambassi

Authors
  1. Timothy Tambassi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Timothy Tambassi .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Tambassi, T. (2021). The Ontological Background. In: The Philosophy of Geo-Ontologies . SpringerBriefs in Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78145-3_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation