categories and taxonomy

• linear structure
• who, what, and where
• set of categories from the literary philosopher Jorge Luis Borges
• example of poetic categories—taxonomy of the animal kingdom from the ancient Chinese encyclopedia Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge
• Things are the simplest of all those crucial entities in the world, and components of knowledge, yet, there are so many things … One way to make sense of things is to group them into categories
• Good categories:
  • sort most things into separate bins, not partially overlapping ones
  • easy to identify
  • be informative, tell us what they’re good for
  • reduce the enormous numbers of different things to a manageable number
• specific and abstract labels
• basic-level categories like table and apple and shirt easy to identify also provide a wealth of information
• superordinate categories like tool and vehicle
• the essential features of basic-level objects are typically evident from their shapes and their parts

linked mentions for "categories and taxonomy":

1. linear structure
   narratives have a linear structure driven by time, theories have a linear structure directed by logic speaking is linear, one word after another,
   
2. specific and abstract labels
   Calling ordinary things with more abstract or more specific labels sounds odd in ordinary situations. If I offer you a ride because I’ve brought my
   
3. who, what, and where
   are so fundamental that the brain has specialized regions for recognizing them, multiple for each: faces, bodies, objects, scenes. When is harder,