Classification Made Relevant
How Scientists Build and Use Classifications and Ontologies

Investigates how classifications and ontologies are used to analyze scientific information

Jules J. Berman (Author)

9780323917865, Elsevier Science

Paperback / softback, published 28 January 2022

444 pages
23.5 x 19 x 2.8 cm, 0.45 kg

"One of the ways in which human beings attempt to understand relationships among objects, beings and concepts is through the process of classification. Sometimes our classifications are simple (heavy vs light) and sometimes complex (the phylogeny of living things), but each attempt to develop a classification system represents an attempt to improve our understanding of the world around us. In this tour de force, Dr. Berman creates a unifying framework by which to understand successful (and unsuccessful) classification systems in fields ranging from mathematics to biology, showing the dependence of all successful classifications to at least implicit incorporation/acceptance of previous classifications in the mathematics – physics – chemistry – biology chain, and without losing sight of the fact that the purpose of classification is understanding. Thus, development of classification systems both complements and frames the appropriate use of other tools, based on probabilistic and continuous mathematics, for understanding the world around us. The clear and detailed expositions that Dr. Berman provides in this book are useful to both scientists who wish to develop a deeper understanding of how concepts like that of the periodic table both encapsulate known science and guide its further development, and to non-scientists who wish to develop a better understanding of how scientists think. I highly recommend it." --Timothy J. O'Leary, MD, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Pathology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; former Chief Research and Development Officer, Department of Veterans Affairs

Classification Made Relevant: How Scientists Build and Use Classifications and Ontologies explains how classifications and ontologies are designed and used to analyze scientific information. The book presents the fundamentals of classification, leading up to a description of how computer scientists use object-oriented programming languages to model classifications and ontologies. Numerous examples are chosen from the Classification of Life, the Periodic Table of the Elements, and the symmetry relationships contained within the Classification Theorem of Finite Simple Groups. When these three classifications are tied together, they provide a relational hierarchy connecting all of the natural sciences.

1. Sitting in Class 2. Classification Logic 3. Ontologies and Semantics 4. Coping with Paradoxical or Flawed Classifications and Ontologies 5. The Class-Oriented Programming Paradigm 6. The Classification of Life 7. The Periodic Table 8. Classifying the Universe

Subject Areas: Information retrieval [UNH], Databases [UN], Information technology: general issues [UB], Library, archive & information management [GLC]