Ontologies: from Philosophy to Knowledge Integration

The present work discusses the topic of ontologies and it focuses on the critical aspects of their implementation in the field of Knowledge Management and Computer Science. The assumptions that underlie the specific definition of ontology in such domains refer to established positions in the area of philosophy. As further matter, these latter are the result of an ancient debate on what an ontology is, and what can be considered the objects of knowledge. Some philosophical theories do constitute the background of ontologies in Computer Science and must be taken into account when dealing with the problem of integration of different ontologies. Integration is a crucial issue to address with, mainly in the complex scenery of interactions between human actors and information systems. In fact, as information systems are bounded in practices of communities of users, the adoption of ontologies can’t be separated from considerations about its social and economic effects. Taking that into account, some general guidelines useful to perform an integration activity are proposed and an applicative case is presented.