torsdag 12 januari 2012

On the meeting point between objective and subjective classification (e.g., Linnean and cladistic classification, respectively)

Classification ends in Russell's paradox or the class clade, depending on whether it starts from objects or classes, which thus is the meeting point (i.e., interface) between objectivity and subjectivity. This point is actually the orthogonal opposite to object, and is thus a pure abstraction arising from classification itself. The reason that this point is contradictory is that it is doubly ambiguous, both in time and over time, at the same time, which is contradictory (i.e., a paradox).

The existence of this end point in classfication excludes the existence of a single consistent and unambiguous classification (like, for example, the cladistic idea "The Tree of Life"), instead meaning that classification can only be either ambiguous or contradictory. Objective classification (like Linnean classification) is consistent but ambiguous, whereas subjective classification (like cladistics) is "natural" but contradictory. It means that typology (the belief that classes are real) in practice is an eternal merry-go-round between ambiguous or contradictory alternatives. The difference between classes is in practice fundamentally not qualitative, but quantitative (ie, not a matter of black or white, but of gray scale).

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