What are ontologies and what are they used for?

What are ontologies and what are they used for?

The paradigm of semantic data processing, which has received increasing attention since the early 2000s, draws on the philosophical approach of so-called ontology, which was established by Parmenides as early as 500 BC. With this approach, reality can be described both abstractly and concretely. The tradition of ontological "modeling" was extended in modern times by mathematical forms of description, such as horn logic. With the logical programming languages developed in the 1970s and 1990s, such as Prolog and F-Logic, it is possible to describe complex relationships - as the philosophers did - and use them as a form of artificial intelligence, also known as active ontologies. In this way, new knowledge is created on the basis of complex relationships - so-called semantic AI.