A Higher Order Approach to Ontology Evolution in Physics

Abstract

A higher-order logical approach to ontology evolution is applied to examples in Physics. Based on this approach, a framework is proposed which includes a methodology for the formalisation of ontology evolution in higher-order logic and an implementation of this methodology in the theorem prover Isabelle. The proposed basic mechanisms for evolution are called ontology repair plans. These operate on ontologies formalised as contexts, i.e., as multiple logical theories. In such a setting, ontologies may contradict one another or introduce redundancies with respect to one another, without any of them containing logical contradictions or redundancies. When, though, an inconsistency or a redundancy between two or more ontologies becomes explicit, it may be resolved by the application of an ontology repair plan, as each plan compiles together a pattern for diagnosis and transformation rules for effecting a repair. The repair can combine the retraction and/or addition of axioms as well as the deeper modification of the language in which the ontology is represented.