Towards a Theory of Diagnosis of Faulty Ontologies

We initiate research into a generic theory of diagnosis of faulty ontologies. The proposals are based on, but generalise, our experience with the GALILEO and ORS systems. We make some initial simplifying assumptions, which we hope will not restrict the application of the proposals to new areas. In particular, we look at repairing faulty ontologies where the fault is revealed by an inference failure and the repair is implemented by a signature and/or theory morphism. More concretely, we focus on situations where a false conjecture has been proved. Diagnosis consists of constructing a morphism by analysis of failed inference. It is assumed that an oracle is available that can answer (and sometimes ask) questions, but whose own ontology is otherwise inscrutable.