Add to ORKGAbstract. Much work in ontology has been based on ideas derived explicitly from philosophy. In particular there are two philosophy-based high-level ontologies which have been used to analyse tools and techniques for designing information systems, both deriving from the tradition of realism – one from naturalism (Bunge), the other from Aristotelian common-sense realism (Chisholm). Does it matter which underlying philosophy is used in such cases? We use data modelling as a vehicle to explore this question but what we have to say relates quite generally to information systems analysis and design. We find that naturalism cannot account for the multiple perspectives common in real-world situations and we accordingly recommend that common-sense r...