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10494 | Several words may label a category; one word can name several categories; some categories lack words |
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. | |||
From: Roy Ellen (Categories, Classification, Cogn. Anthropology [2006], I) | |||
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. |