Ontology
Origin
Originally Latin ontologia (1606, Ogdoas Scholastica, by Jacob Lorhard (Lorhardus)), from Ancient Greek ὤν ("on"), present participle of εἰμί ("being, existing, essence") + λόγος (logos, "account").
First known English use 1663: Archelogia philosophica nova; or, New principles of Philosophy. Containing Philosophy in general, Metaphysicks or Ontology, Dynamilogy or a Discourse of Power, Religio Philosophi or Natural Theology, Physicks or Natural philosophy, by Gideon Harvey (1636/7-1702), London, Thomson, 1663.
Popularized as a philosophical term by German philosopher Christian Wolff (philosopher) (1679–1754).
Full definition of ontology
Noun
ontology
(plural ontologies)- (uncountable, philosophy) The branch of metaphysics that addresses the nature or essential characteristics of being and of things that exist; the study of being qua being.
- (countable, philosophy) The theory of a particular philosopher or school of thought concerning the fundamental types of entity in the universe.
- 2000, C. D. C. Reeve, Substantial Knowledge: Aristotle's Metaphysics, Hackett Publishing, p. 97:The answer to the controversial question of whether Aristotle's ontology includes non-substantial particulars, then, is that it does.
- (logic) A logical system involving theory of classes, developed by Stanislaw_Lesniewski (1886-1939).
- (computer science, information science) A structure of concepts or entities within a domain, organized by relationships; a system model.
Usage notes
In the field of philosophy there is some variation in how the term ontology is used. Ontology is a much more recent term than metaphysics and takes its root meaning explicitly from the Greek term for being. Ontology can be used loosely as a rough equivalent to metaphysics or more precisely to denote that subset of the domain of metaphysics which is focused rigorously on the study of being as being.