BFO OWL gap

Sanne de Roever

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Jul 21, 2025, 5:50:22 AMJul 21

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Hi,

Having just read the Building Ontologies with BFO, and also aiming to work in OWL, I realize that the OWL model is different.

My challenge is to assess in what ways I have to adapt my thinking about BFO in an OWL context.

Does anyone have recommendations for material on the gap between the BFO standard and BFO as implemented in OWL?

Best regards,

Sanne

Barry Smith

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Jul 21, 2025, 7:42:34 AMJul 21

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Sanne

Did you look at the ISO standards?

https://www.iso.org/standard/71954.html

https://www.iso.org/standard/74572.html

They are both free. The second file, especially, provides some information about the OWL and FOL releases.

Barry

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Alex Shkotin

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Jul 22, 2025, 2:40:22 AMJul 22

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Hi,

Why do you think there is a gap? BFO can be expressed in OWL2, Common Logic, or any other formal language you prefer.

Alex

пн, 21 июл. 2025 г. в 12:50, Sanne de Roever <sanne.d...@gmail.com>:

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Sanne de Roever

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Jul 22, 2025, 4:30:21 AMJul 22

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Hi Barry,

Thank you for the pointer. I got the standards and will dive in.

Cheers,

Sanne

Sanne de Roever

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Jul 22, 2025, 4:51:44 AMJul 22

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Hi Alex,

In the Building Ontologies with BFO book I read (I'm paraphrasing here) that the OWL version of BFO supports as much as OWL allows. Knowing that OWL is a subset of FOL, I concluded that the restrictions on OWL impact the OWL version of BFO.

I also saw that some spatial relations in the book where missing in the OWL BFO definition (adjacent_to, derives_from), likely because the book is from 2015 and the ontology I am looking at is the 2020 version.

This together led me to believe that I do not have a good overview of what might be 'lost in translation'. My challenge stems from the fact that I am neither fluent in BFO nor OWL.

Cheers,

Sanne

Alex Shkotin

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Jul 22, 2025, 5:54:18 AMJul 22

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Hi Sanne,

Thank you for your clarification.

Alex

вт, 22 июл. 2025 г. в 11:51, Sanne de Roever <sanne.d...@gmail.com>:

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