ISO IEC 21838-2 pdf – Information technology — Top-level ontologies (TLO) — Part 2: Basic Formal Ontology (BFO)
1 scope
This document describes Basic Formal Ontology (BF0), which is an ontology that is conformant to therequirements specified for top-level ontologies in ISO/IEC 21838-1.
lt describes BF0 as a resource designed to supportthe interchange of information among heterogeneousinformation systems. The following are within the scope of this document:
– definitions of BFO-2020 terms and relations;
-axiomatizations of BFO-2020 in OWL 2 and CL;
– documentation of the conformity of BFO-2020 to the requirements specified for top-level ontologies
in ISO/IEC 21838-1;
specification of the requirements for a domain ontology if it is to serve as a module in a suite ofontologies in which BFO serves as top-level ontology hub by providing a starting point for theintroduction of the most general terms in those domain ontologies which are its nearest neighbourswithin the suite;
specification of the role played by the terms in BF0 in the formulation of definitions and axioms inontologies at lower levels that conform to BFO.
The following are outside the scope of this document:
specification of ontology languages, including the languages RDF,OWL, and CL standardly used inontology development;
specification of methods for reasoning with ontologies;
specification of translators between the notations of ontologies developed in different ontologylanguages.
2Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their contentconstitutes requirements of this document. For dated references,only the edition cited applies.Forundated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.ISO/IEC 21838-1:2021, Information technology —Top-level ontologies (TLO)— Part 1:Requirements
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO/IEC21838-1 and the followingapply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:- ISo online browsing platform: available at https:/ /www.iso .org/obp
—IEC Electropedia: available at http:/ /www.electropedia .org/
NOTE The following terms and definitions, along with the definitions in ISO/IEC 21838-1, form part of themeta-vocabulary used for describing BF0-2020 in this document, except that in BF0 the terms “entity” and“object” are not synonyms. The vocabulary of BFO-2020 itself is documented in https://standards .iso .org/iso-iec/ 21838/-2fed-1/en.
3.1
primitive
expression for which no non-circular definition can be provided3.2
universaltype
entity (3.1) that has indefinitely many instances (3.6)
EXAMPLE Electron,molecule,cell, planet, explosion, vehicle, hour，traffic law,organization， mortgagecontract, email message.
Note 1 to entry: References to universals are employed in the formulation of the assertions of natural scienceand of analogous general assertions in technical manuals, experimental protocols or legal or administrativedocuments.
3.3
extension
collection (3.4) of instances of a universal (3.2)
Note 1 to entry: Iin 0WL, every Class is associated with a Class Extension, which is the set of Instances of the Class.ln Reference [4] (from 2004), it is asserted that: “A class has an intensional meaning (the underlying concept)which is related but not equal to its class extension.Thus, two classes may have the same class extension, but stillbe different classes.”
3.4
collection
group of particulars
Note 1 to entry: The particulars in a collection are called its members.
Note 2 to entry: The term “collection” is to be understood as allowing change of members over time (seeISO/IEC 21838-1:2021,B.3.2).
3.5
defined class
collection (3.4), whose members are defined by specifying a restriction on one or more universals (3.2),that is not the extension (3.3) of any universal (3.2)
EXAMPLE Non-smoker(meaning: person who does not smoke); pet (meaning: animal that is kept forcompanionship or pleasure); mortgagee (meaning: person with a mortgage); lathe operator (meaning: personwith an employment role realized through operating a lathe); target(meaning:thing or process that is targeted).Note 1 to entry: In the 0WL 2 community the expression “Defined Class” is sometimes used informally to refer tothose Classes in an ontology in which both necessary and sufficient conditions are provided, as contrasted withwhat are called “Primitive Classes” for which only necessary conditions are provided.
3.6
instance
particular that instantiates some universal (3.2)