What is "formal ontology"

n. An ontology with a structure that is guided and defined through axioms.

In philosophy, the term formal ontology is used to refer to an ontology defined by axioms in a formal language with the goal to provide an unbiased ( domain- and application-independent) view on reality, which can help the modeler of domain- or application-specific ontologies (information science) to avoid possibly erroneous ontological assumptions encountered in modeling large-scale ontologies.

By maintaining an independent view on reality a formal (upper level) ontology gains the following properties:

• indefinite expandability: the ontology remains consistent with increasing content.
• content and context independence: any kind of ' concept' can find its place.
• accommodate different levels of granularity.

Theories on how to conceptualize reality date back as far as Plato and Aristotle.