Ontology Methodology

During the Transfiguration, the apostles on Tabor, “indeed saw the same grace of the Spirit which would later dwell in them”. The light of grace “illuminates from outside (ἔξωθεν) on those who worthily approached it and sent the illumination to the soul through the sensitive eyes; but today, because it is confounded with us (ἀνακραθὲν ἡμῖν) and exists in us, it illuminates the soul from inward (ἔνδωθεν)”. The opposition between knowledge, which comes from outside (ἔξωθεν) - a human and purely symbolic knowledge - and “intellectual” knowledge, which comes from within (ἔνδωθεν), Meyendorff says what it already exists at Pseudo-Dionysius: “For it is not from without that God stirs them toward the divine. Rather he does so via the intellect and from within and he willingly enlightens them with a ray that is pure and immaterial”. The assertions of the Calabrian philosopher about an “unique knowledge”, common both to the Christians and the Hellenes and pursuing the same goal, the hesychast theologian opposes the reality of the two knowledge, having two distinct purposes and based on two different instruments of perception: “Palamas admitted the authenticity of natural knowledge, however the latter is opposed to the revealed wisdom, that is why it does not provide, by itself, salvation”. Therefore, in the purified human intellect begins to shine of the Trinity light. Purity also depends on the return of the intellect (its proper energy) to itself. In this way, we see how the true knowledge of God is an internal meeting or “inner retrieval” of the whole being of man. As well as in the Syrian mystic, on several occasions we have to make the distinction between the contemplative ways of knowledge: intellection illuminated by grace and spiritual vision without any conceptual or symbolic meaning. For example, Robert Beulay shows that, “The term of ‘intellection’ first of all, is employed by John of Dalyatha to be applied to operations caused by grace”.

The Centre for Digital Built Britain has been tasked through the Digital Framework Task Group to develop an Information Management Framework (IMF) to support the development of a National Digital Twin (NDT) as set out in “The Pathway to an Information Management Framework” (Hetherington, 2020). A key component of the IMF is a Foundation Data Model (FDM), built upon a top-level ontology (TLO), as a basis for ensuring consistent data across the NDT.

This document captures the results collected from a broad survey of top-level ontologies, conducted by the IMF technical team. It focuses on the core ontological choices made in their foundations and the pragmatic engineering consequences these have on how the ontologies can be applied and further scaled. This document will provide the basis for discussions on a suitable TLO for the FDM. It is also expected that these top-level ontologies will provide a resource whose components can be harvested and adapted for inclusion in the FDM.

Following the publication of this document, the programme will perform a structured assessment of the TLOs identified herein, with a view to selecting one or more TLOs that will form the kernel around which the FDM will evolve. A further report – The FDM TLO Selection Paper – will be issued to describe this process in late 2020.

The use of ontologies enables semantically enriched access to a variety of digital resources. Historical domains impose a number of challenges to creating ontologies, e.g.
modeling temporal relations, handling subjectivity, and dealing with vagueness. This research develops a case study in the History of Science that illustrates how to conceptualise and reason about a historical domain, and suggests an approach to modeling time and temporal relations. Based on existing methodologies for ontology construction, a methodology for conceptualising (a part of) the History of Science domain has been derived taking into account that the author has acted as both a domain expert and a knowledge engineer. Following the methodology, main concepts and relations in the History of
Science have been identified. Special attention is paid at modeling temporal concepts and relations. A framework for conceptualising and reasoning about the History of Science
is presented, combining Davidson’s theory of events to represent temporal categories and Allen’s interval logic to reason about temporal relations.

Abstract. Increasingly, in data-intensive areas of the life sciences, experimental results are being described in algorithmically useful ways with the help of ontologies. Such ontologies are authored and maintained by scientists to support the retrieval, integration and analysis of their data. The proposition to be defended here is that ontologies of this type���the Gene Ontology (GO) being the most conspicuous example���are a part of science.

ABSTRACT It is now widely accepted that ontologies play a critical role in achieving the goal of machine understandable web, also known as semantic web. In order to develop ontologies, several methodologies have been proposed during the last two decades. Despite the fact, that quite a number of ontology engineering methodologies have been proposed, still the field lacks widely accepted and mature methodologies. Most methodologies lack sufficient details of techniques and activities employed in them. However, some methodologies provide sufficient details including METHONTOLOGY. This article discusses and reports a critical analysis and comparison of these methodologies. The analysis is performed based on a criterion, derived from related literature, trends and needs which evolved over the years. The results of the analysis showed that there is no completely mature methodology. Therefore, this research may act as a preliminary guide to come with a state of art ontology engineering methodology, bridging up the existing gaps and shortfalls.

It is now widely accepted that ontologies play a critical role in achieving the goal of machine
understandable web, also known as semantic web. In order to develop ontologies, several methodologies have been
proposed during the last two decades. Despite the fact, that quite a number of ontology engineering methodologies
have been proposed, still the field lacks widely accepted and mature methodologies. Most methodologies lack
sufficient details of techniques and activities employed in them. However, some methodologies provide sufficient
details including METHONTOLOGY. This article discusses and reports a critical analysis and comparison of these
methodologies. The analysis is performed based on a criterion, derived from related literature, trends and needs
which evolved over the years. The results of the analysis showed that there is no completely mature methodology.
Therefore, this research may act as a preliminary guide to come with a state of art ontology engineering
methodology, bridging up the existing gaps and shortfalls.