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Heuristic vs Ontology - What's the difference?

heuristic | ontology |

As nouns the difference between heuristic and ontology

is that heuristic is a heuristic method while ontology is the branch of metaphysics that addresses the nature or essential characteristics of being and of things that exist; the study of being qua being.

As an adjective heuristic

is relating to general strategies or methods for solving problems.

heuristic

English

(wikipedia heuristic)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Relating to general strategies or methods for solving problems.
  • (computing, of a method or algorithm) that solves a problem more quickly but is not certain to arrive at an optimal solution.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2002, author=Te Chiang Hu, Man-tak Shing, title=Combinatorial Algorithms citation
    • , passage=If a heuristic algorithm works for most of the input data or its maximum percentage error is tolerable, we may prefer the heuristic algorithm to an optimum algorithm that requires a long time.}}

    Derived terms

    * heuristically * heuristical

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A heuristic method.
  • The art of applying heuristic methods.

    • ontology

    English

    (wikipedia 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

    Related terms

    * ontic * ontically

    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