before you have a solid ontological understanding of a concept, lacking powerful descriptive axioms we're forced to rely on a list of characteristics e.g. intri

before you have a solid ontological understanding of a concept, lacking powerful descriptive axioms we're forced to rely on a list of characteristics e.g. intrinsic properties, how it interacts with other objects, etc. if we restrict ourselves to things we already have a vigorous understanding of how will we consider new hypothesis? I'm not sure if this is coming through right.