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 Reference
'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]