Category Formation. Reification
73
some things are heavy and others are light, we abstract out the notion of
weight, which thus becomes a new entity in the world. Noises we hear are
loud or soft, high-pitched or low-pitched, so we objectify volume and pitch as
abstract entities which apply to sounds, and whose meaning can be extended
metaphorically: For instance, we speak of “loud colors”. A sharp needle is piercing and by analogy we can speak of a “piercing scream”. From watching water,
we notice that some things are liquid and flow, and we speak metaphorically
of “the flow of traffic”.
Almost all the notions of science originate by abstraction from common
properties of things: Notions such as temperature, force, velocity, acceleration
have been reified out of visceral experience, and are denoted by nouns because
they have become concrete things for us. The habit of drawing abstract features
out of their context in nature and objectifying them is so commonplace that
the human ontology contains as many abstract things as concrete ones.
Our ontology contains not just simple abstractions, but higher-level ones
formed by abstracting from existing abstractions. For example, an object is
heavier than another if its weight is greater. A particle accelerates if its speed is
increasing. Compound abstractions are like nested boxes, one or more within
another, and can be extraordinarily complex. These, like all the items in our
ontology, are Gestalts.
The universal aptitude of living creatures to respond to abstractions is not
surprising, as it is an indispensable prerequisite for category formation—and
recognizing different categories is essential for survival. If there were no categories then the world would be an impenetrable labyrinth. Every chair or table
would be a distinct kind of thing and every apple would be one of a kind. The
world is comprehensible and action is possible because everything falls into a
category, and every item in a category requires the same or similar responses. 4
The ability to form categories of the objects in an environment is a foundational aspect of mind, and present in all animals. The process of categorization
has been studied by psychologists for many years, and has produced important
insights into the ways of animal intelligence. Eleanor Rosch, a psychologist at
the University of California in Berkeley, has researched the underlying principles of category formation in humans and other animals. She found that
common categories are elaborate Gestalts which have a great deal of internal
structure.
Rosch has found that a category is not a generic version of the objects in
it, but is something newly minted with a character and a structure of its own.
For example, the category of dogs is not simply a generic dog, but is a complex
of images that we may call the concept of dog. Visually, it includes a fluid
composite image of what the most commonly seen dogs look like, viewed in
73
some things are heavy and others are light, we abstract out the notion of
weight, which thus becomes a new entity in the world. Noises we hear are
loud or soft, high-pitched or low-pitched, so we objectify volume and pitch as
abstract entities which apply to sounds, and whose meaning can be extended
metaphorically: For instance, we speak of “loud colors”. A sharp needle is piercing and by analogy we can speak of a “piercing scream”. From watching water,
we notice that some things are liquid and flow, and we speak metaphorically
of “the flow of traffic”.
Almost all the notions of science originate by abstraction from common
properties of things: Notions such as temperature, force, velocity, acceleration
have been reified out of visceral experience, and are denoted by nouns because
they have become concrete things for us. The habit of drawing abstract features
out of their context in nature and objectifying them is so commonplace that
the human ontology contains as many abstract things as concrete ones.
Our ontology contains not just simple abstractions, but higher-level ones
formed by abstracting from existing abstractions. For example, an object is
heavier than another if its weight is greater. A particle accelerates if its speed is
increasing. Compound abstractions are like nested boxes, one or more within
another, and can be extraordinarily complex. These, like all the items in our
ontology, are Gestalts.
The universal aptitude of living creatures to respond to abstractions is not
surprising, as it is an indispensable prerequisite for category formation—and
recognizing different categories is essential for survival. If there were no categories then the world would be an impenetrable labyrinth. Every chair or table
would be a distinct kind of thing and every apple would be one of a kind. The
world is comprehensible and action is possible because everything falls into a
category, and every item in a category requires the same or similar responses. 4
The ability to form categories of the objects in an environment is a foundational aspect of mind, and present in all animals. The process of categorization
has been studied by psychologists for many years, and has produced important
insights into the ways of animal intelligence. Eleanor Rosch, a psychologist at
the University of California in Berkeley, has researched the underlying principles of category formation in humans and other animals. She found that
common categories are elaborate Gestalts which have a great deal of internal
structure.
Rosch has found that a category is not a generic version of the objects in
it, but is something newly minted with a character and a structure of its own.
For example, the category of dogs is not simply a generic dog, but is a complex
of images that we may call the concept of dog. Visually, it includes a fluid
composite image of what the most commonly seen dogs look like, viewed in