more from Nelson Goodman

Single Idea 17654

[catalogued under 7. Existence / E. Categories / 5. Category Anti-Realism]

Full Idea

A world may be unmanageably heterogeneous or unbearably monotonous according to how events are sorted into kinds.

Gist of Idea

A world can be full of variety or not, depending on how we sort it

Source

Nelson Goodman (Ways of Worldmaking [1978], 1.4a)

Book Reference

Goodman,Nelson: 'Ways of Worldmaking' [Hackett 1984], p.9


A Reaction

We might expect this from the man who invented 'grue', which allows you to classify things that change colour with things that don't. Could you describe a bird as 'might have been a fish', and classify it with fish? ('Projectible'?)