Adding ‘Sense’ to Conceptual Modeling: An Interdisciplinary Approach

In this paper, our aim is to widen the prevailing foundations of conceptual modeling theories and practices, particularly in the context of information systems development. The approach shifts the focus from the link between a model and the modelled reality to the link between human cognition and the model. Our approach combines theoretical issues of different disciplines relevant to conceptual modeling. We shall make an explicit distinction between individual conceptions and interpersonal concepts and show how this distinction could be utilized to have conceptual models of a better consistency. We wish that this article could also serve as a starting point for a profound scientific discussion on the real sources of conceptual models, i.e. the human mind.