more from this thinker     |     more from this text

Single Idea 10494

[filed under theme 7. Existence / E. Categories / 2. Categorisation ]

Full Idea

Words are not always a good guide to the existence of categories: there may be several words which label the same categories (synonyms). and the same word can be used for quite different ideas. Some categories may exist without being labelled.

Gist of Idea

Several words may label a category; one word can name several categories; some categories lack words

Source

Roy Ellen (Categories, Classification, Cogn. Anthropology [2006], I)

Book Ref

Ellen,Roy: 'The Categorical Impulse' [Bergahn Books 2008], p.4

A Reaction

This is the sort of point which seems obvious to anyone outside philosophy, but which philosophers seem to find difficult to accept. Philosophers should pay much more attention to animals, and to illiterate peoples. Varieties of rice can lack labels.

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]