Most of us recognize the problem with all/nothing, black/white, yes/no kind of thinking and the idea of putting stuff in only one of two boxes.  Unfortunately, some think that by setting up more than two boxes, say, four or five categories, they can stick everyone in one of them and they have escaped thinking in dichotomies.  However, most things fit spectra rather than a few categories.  It may not be as easy to talk about things when we don’t have a few words to describe them, but by doing so, it helps clarify our thinking.

Occam

Occam. - 25 August 2012 12:44 PM

Most of us recognize the problem with all/nothing, black/white, yes/no kind of thinking and the idea of putting stuff in only one of two boxes.  Unfortunately, some think that by setting up more than two boxes, say, four or five categories, they can stick everyone in one of them and they have escaped thinking in dichotomies.  However, most things fit spectra rather than a few categories.  It may not be as easy to talk about things when we don’t have a few words to describe them, but by doing so, it helps clarify our thinking.

Occam

I’d say that’s true sometimes. It all depends on whether we’re being incisive enough. Sometimes categorizing does more to muddy the waters than to clear them.

I believe we’re saying about the same thing, PLC.  Catagorizing usually tends to cause people to ignore or miss small but often important differences among members of a given category.

Occam

Occam. - 25 August 2012 12:52 PM

I believe we’re saying about the same thing, PLC.  Catagorizing usually tends to cause people to ignore or miss small but often important differences among members of a given category.

Occam

Just goes to show ya. Words are categories, and they’re regularly misinterpreted. Einstein, who was speech delayed as a child, later observed that it helped him become a scientist because it allowed him to experience the world as it was without having to fit it into the categories imposed by language.

Interesting idea.  Since my grandmother took care of me when I was very young and she was too busy to talk, I often wandered the fields by myself observing the spiders, other bugs, bird nests, how plants grew, etc, all without talking.  The only words I uses were for counting the boxcars in the trains that went by in the distance (although I don’t think I used the right numbers for them   ).

Occam