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Single Idea 8986
[filed under theme 7. Existence / E. Categories / 2. Categorisation
]
Full Idea
We must reject the classical picture of classification by pigeon-holes, and think in other terms: classifying can be, and often is, clustering round paradigms.
Gist of Idea
We should abandon classifying by pigeon-holes, and classify around paradigms
Source
Mark Sainsbury (Concepts without Boundaries [1990], §8)
Book Ref
'Vagueness: a Reader', ed/tr. Keefe,R /Smith,P [MIT 1999], p.264
A Reaction
His conclusion to a discussion of the problem of vagueness, where it is identified with concepts which have no boundaries. Pigeon-holes are a nice exemplar of the Enlightenment desire to get everything right. I prefer Aristotle's categories, Idea 3311.
Related Idea
Idea 3311
The categories (substance, quality, quantity, relation, action, passion, place, time) peter out inconsequentially [Benardete,JA on Aristotle]
The
17 ideas
with the same theme
[how the mind approaches putting things into categories]:
13775
|
We only succeed in cutting if we use appropriate tools, not if we approach it randomly
[Plato]
|
16121
|
I revere anyone who can discern a single thing that encompasses many things
[Plato]
|
13435
|
We can't categorise things by their real essences, because these are unknown
[Locke]
|
12535
|
If we discovered real essences, we would still categorise things by the external appearance
[Locke]
|
6160
|
Does Kant say the mind imposes categories, or that it restricts us to them?
[Rowlands on Kant]
|
22649
|
Classification can only ever be for a particular purpose
[James]
|
4048
|
Infant brains appear to have inbuilt ontological categories
[Goldman]
|
8986
|
We should abandon classifying by pigeon-holes, and classify around paradigms
[Sainsbury]
|
17376
|
We should aim for a classification which tells us as much as possible about the object
[Dupré]
|
4913
|
Brain lesions can erase whole categories of perception, suggesting they are hard-wired
[Carter,R]
|
15682
|
Even fairly simple animals make judgements based on categories
[Gelman]
|
15691
|
Children accept real stable categories, with nonobvious potential that gives causal explanations
[Gelman]
|
13131
|
The aim is that everything should belong in some ontological category or other
[Westerhoff]
|
10494
|
Several words may label a category; one word can name several categories; some categories lack words
[Ellen]
|
18573
|
For each category of objects (such as 'dog') an individual seems to have several concepts
[Machery]
|
18602
|
A thing is classified if its features are likely to be generated by that category's causal laws
[Machery]
|
18604
|
Are quick and slow categorisation the same process, or quite different?
[Machery]
|