Re: Tlvn, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius

Nik Taylor wrote:

> Christophe Grandsire wrote:
> > Reality (whatever it is) doesn't fit into small categories well defined.
> > Dividing it into categories will make it easier to study things, but
> > will make us also often miss some points.
>
> I couldn't agree with you more.  However, it's quite impossible to study
> reality without using neat little categories.
That's true, but the function of categorization (rightly understood)
is not to study the whole of  reality, but rather to make predictions
within that reality.  So, for example in political science, neoliberalism
and neomarxism are both theories (or sets of theories) that each have
some value in predicting the behavior of nation states and of the
separate elements in them -- but both are fundamental world views
which leave out considerable portions of that world.  In other words,
they're useful pedagogical aids, but we should always take them cum
grano salis.

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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

Denn wo Begriffe fehlen,
Da stellt ein Wort zur rechten Zeit sich ein.
   -- Mephistopheles, in Goethe's _Faust_
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