Ontology Revision without Priority to Incoming Information

Ontology evolution is the process of modifying an ontology to preserve consistency during changes. Current work on ontology evolution is based on the idea of bringing the AGM belief change theory to work within ontology evolution. However, AGM's principle of priority to incoming information can not be accepted when the new information represents a new evidence about the world, supposed to be a fixed static entity, while its description is only partial and uncertain. In particular, it can not be accepted in a distributed environment, where the information sources are potentially unreliable. We replace the priority to incoming information with the principle of recoverability: any previously held piece of knowledge should belong to the current knowledge space if consistent with it.odifying an ontology to preserve consistency during changes. Current work on ontology evolution is based on the idea of bringing the AGM belief change theory to work within ontology evolution. However, AGM's principle of priority to incoming information can not be accepted when the new information represents a new evidence about the world, supposed to be a fixed static entity, while its description is only partial and uncertain. In particular, it can not be accepted in a distributed environment, where the information sources are potentially unreliable. We replace the priority to incoming information with the principle of recoverability: any previously held piece of knowledge should belong to the current knowledge space if consistent with it.