1 Term and Concept

Ontologia is a term coined in the 1600s, from Gk. ta onta (existing things) and logos (reason, doctrine). Its first use may have been in the Lexicon philosophicum (1613), compiled by Rudolf Goclenius the Elder (1547–1628). With the meaning “doctrine of being,” some authors used the term synonymously with “metaphysics.” Others treated ontology as one branch of metaphysics, alongside the other two branches, cosmology and rational or philosophical ps…