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Ontology vs Essence - What's the difference?

ontology | essence |

As nouns the difference between ontology and essence

is that ontology is (uncountable|philosophy) the branch of metaphysics that addresses the nature or essential characteristics of being and of things that exist; the study of being qua being while essence is (senseid)the inherent nature of a thing or idea.

ontology

Noun

(ontologies)
  • (uncountable, philosophy) The branch of metaphysics that addresses the nature or essential characteristics of being and of things that exist; the study of being qua being.
  • * '>citation
  • (countable, philosophy) The theory of a particular philosopher or school of thought concerning the fundamental types of entity in the universe.
  • * 2000 , , Substantial Knowledge: Aristotle's Metaphysics , Hackett Publishing, p. 97:
  • The answer to the controversial question of whether Aristotle's ontology includes non-substantial particulars, then, is that it does.
  • (logic) A logical system involving theory of classes, developed by (1886-1939).
  • (computer science, information science) A structure of concepts or entities within a domain, organized by relationships; a system model.
  • Usage notes

    In the field of philosophy there is some variation in how the term ontology'' is used. ''Ontology'' is a much more recent term than ''metaphysics'' and takes its root meaning explicitly from the Greek term for ''being.'' ''Ontology'' can be used loosely as a rough equivalent to ''metaphysics or more precisely to denote that subset of the domain of metaphysics which is focused rigorously on the study of being as being.

    Holonyms

    * metaphysics

    Derived terms

    * ontologic * ontological * ontologist * ontologistic * formal ontology

    References

    * * * * * * " ontology" by F.P. Siegfried, in The Catholic Encyclopedia (Robert Appleton Company, New York, 1911) * Oxford English Dictionary , second edition (1989) * Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary (1987-1996) * Dictionary of Philosophy'', (editor), Philosophical Library (1962); ''see: "Ontology" by James K. Feibleman, page 219 * " Ontology" by Tom Gruber to appear in the Encyclopedia of Database Systems, Ling Liu and M. Tamer Özsu (editors), Springer-Verlag (2008) English words suffixed with -ology

    essence

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (senseid)The inherent nature of a thing or idea.
  • * Landor
  • The laws are at present, both in form and essence , the greatest curse that society labours under.
  • * Addison
  • Gifts and alms are the expressions, not the essence of this virtue [charity].
  • * Courthorpe
  • The essence of Addison's humour is irony.
  • (philosophy) The true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory.
  • Constituent substance.
  • * Milton
  • Uncompounded is their essence pure.
  • A being; especially, a purely spiritual being.
  • * Milton
  • As far as gods and heavenly essences / Can perish.
  • * Washington Irving
  • He had been indulging in fanciful speculations on spiritual essences , until he had an ideal world of his own around him.
  • A significant feature of something.
  • The concentrated form of a plant or drug obtained through a distillation process.
  • * essence of Jojoba
  • Fragrance, a perfume.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Nor let the essences exhale.

    Derived terms

    * in essence * of the essence; time is of the essence

    Anagrams

    * ----