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This anthology furthers discussion about the relationship between ontology in philosophy and ontology in information technology. It fills a gap in cutting-edge research on ontology in both fields, supplying stage-setting overview articles on history and method.

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Ontology was once understood to be the philosophical inquiry into the structure of reality: the analysis and categorization of ´what there is´. Recently, however, a field called ´ontology´ has become part of the rapidly growing research industry in information technology. The two fields have more in common than just their name.

Theory and Applications of Ontology is a two-volume anthology that aims to further an informed discussion about the relationship between ontology in philosophy and ontology in information technology. It fills an important lacuna in cutting-edge research on ontology in both fields, supplying stage-setting overview articles on history and method, presenting directions of current research in either field, and highlighting areas of productive interdisciplinary contact.

Theory and Applications of Ontology: Computer Applications presents ontology in ways that philosophers are not likely to find elsewhere. The volume offers an overview of current research in ontology, distinguishing basic conceptual issues, domain applications, general frameworks, and mathematical formalisms. It introduces the reader to current research on frameworks and applications in information technology in ways that are sure to invite reflection and constructive responses from ontologists in philosophy.

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The Interplay Between Ontology as Categorial Analysis and Ontology as Technology.- Ontological Architectures.- Organization and Management of Large Categorical Systems.- The Information Flow Approach to Ontology-Based Semantic Alignment.- Ontological Evaluation and Validation.- Tools for Ontology Engineering and Management.- Ontological Tools: Requirements, Design Issues and Perspectives.- Using the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) as a Foundation for General Conceptual Modeling Languages.- Lightweight Ontologies.- WordNet.- Controlled English to Logic Translation.- Cyc.- Ontological Foundations of dolce.- General Formal Ontology (GFO): A Foundational Ontology for Conceptual Modelling.- Ontologies in Biology.- The Ontology of Medical Terminological Systems: Towards the Next Generation of Medical Ontologies.- Ontologies of Language and Language Processing.- Business Ontologies.- Ontologies for E-government.- An Ontology-Driven Approach and a Context Management Framework for Ubiquitous Computing Applications.- Category Theory as a Mathematics for Formalizing Ontologies.- Issues of Logic, Algebra and Topology in Ontology.- The Institutional Approach.- Ontology Engineering, Universal Algebra, and Category Theory.

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