In the Defense of Ontological Foundations for Conceptual Modeling
Nicola Guarino, Giancarlo Guizzardi · Journal of the Association for Information Systems · 2006
In his article entitled "On Ontological Foundations of Conceptual Modeling" (henceforth OFCM), Boris Wyssusek reviews several approaches that have the common objective of investigating how results from areas such as formal ontology in philosophy, cognitive science, semiotics and linguistics can be employed in the construction of a well-founded theoretical basis for the discipline of conceptual modeling in computer science.Despite the title of his essay, which may let the reader think of an analysis of what the ontological foundations of conceptual modeling are, Wyssusek wonders whether the very idea makes sense, concluding very negatively that "the project of ontologybased conceptual modeling appears to be impossible in principle".We shall bring here arguments against such conclusion, hoping to convince the readers that the ontology-driven approach to conceptual modeling is well and alive, and that it dramatically improves the quality of information systems.Although it mentions very briefly other approaches, Wyssusek's article is very much focused on the so-called BWW approach, an adaptation made by Ron Weber and Yair Wand of the original theory proposed by the Argentinean theoretical physicist and philosopher of science Mario Bunge.In that respect, due to the popularity of BWW, a contribution of OFCM is to make explicit the 1 Guarino and Guizzardi: In the Defense of Ontological Foundations for Conceptual Modeling