Common sense or, as cognitive science labels it, folk theory informs us that “all things are a kind of thingâ€. All things have in common with other things certain characteristics; i.e. all things belong in categories with other like things. Things are categorized together based upon what they have in common. It might be worth while to think of category as being a container.
In classical or conventional terms we categorize things in accordance with what are regarded as being that which is essential to that kind of thing. All things that are essentially the same fall into the same category. What is essential to a tree is that which is necessary and sufficient for that thing to be classified as a tree. To categorize a thing, i.e. define a thing, is to give its essential characteristics.
In some way or another all creatures must categorize. At a minimum all creatures must distinguish friend from foe or eat and not eat. Categorization is part of the fundamental needs for survival of the creature. If the mouse mistakes a snake for a stick that mouse becomes toast; the same categorization problem applies to the lion and to the man.
Categorization is meaningful. Meaning is not a thing; something is meaningful for a creature only when there is an association between that thing and the creature. “Meaningfulness derives from the experience of functioning as a being of a certain sort in an environment of a certain sort.†It is meaningful to a soldier when s/he mistakenly categorizes a tank to be only a harmless tree or an enemy to be a friend.
There is nothing more meaningful for a creatures’ survival than correct categorization of the world in which that creature lives.
When does a human female egg fertilized by a human male sperm become a person?
Quotes from “Metaphors We Live By†George Lakoff and Mark Johnson
I tell you what, we master cryogenic suspention somehow, take the aborted fetus stuff out without damaging it, freeze it, then many years later, if or when people are not as dumb as fuck, we can come to a true conclusion about whether or not the frozen fetus is a person. Once smart enough to make a sound judgement of whether or not it should live, then and only then is the proper time. Most human choices are premature, misinformed, barely sane impulses.
Instead of a yes no answer, I would say “STOP!”, to the whole human reality. “Stop and grow a brain!”
Most people are still talking about gettin’ saved by Jesus, around where you live, dude. They aren’t ready to create life and control death yet. “Things”, “meanings”, those ideas are often premature judgements, misinformed impulses, supersitions with a modern half-scientific edge.
Humans categorize both consciously and unconsciously; all other creatures categorize only unconsciously.
The important matter that needs attention are these unconscious categories and the brain processes associated with them that are part of the animal nature that we humans inherit.
When we learn how categories are created by our ancestors, the other animals, we will better understand why we do what we do. The empirical work done in the last 30 years by cognitive science has uncovered these matters and we are now in the position to better understand our brain activities as we try to comprehend the world we live in.
yes, cognitive science in the last 30 years has allowed us to talk to animals to determine that they can’t function consciously because they have discovered exactly the section of the brain in which the mind resides…
Cognitive science has introduced a new way of viewing the world and our self by declaring a new paradigm which I call the embodied mind. The primary focus is upon the fact that there is no mind/body duality but that there is indeed an integrated mind and body. The mind and body are as integrated as is the heart and the body.
The human thought process is dominated by the characteristic of our integrated body. The sensorimotor neural network is an integral part of our mind. The neural network that makes movement and perception possible is the same network that processes our thinking.
The unconscious categories that guide our human response to the world are constructed in the same way as are the categories that make it possible of other animals to survive in the world. We form categories both consciously and unconsciously.
Why do we feel that both our consciously created and unconsciously created categories fit the world?
Our consciously formed concepts fit the world, more or less, because we consciously examine the world with our senses and our reason and classify that world into these concepts we call categories.
Our unconsciously formed categories are a different matter. Our unconsciously formed categories fit our world because these basic-level categories “have evolved to form at least one important class of categories that optimally fit our bodily experiences of entities and certain extremely important differences in the natural environmentâ€.
and the orange rolls becasue we perceive its roundness…
no, the orange rolls because its roundness has evolved…
the world fits into human catagories because the world has made man evolve into a catagory producing machine… man’s capacity to produce catagories autonomously is irrelevant… bow to gaia…
As an example; the cane toad is not only experiencing a population explosion in Australia, but is threatening the existence of several predatory species. Because the toad is so lethal, predators do not consciously refrain from attacking the toads, since they do not survive the first attack.
Predators do however learn not to attack potential prey that hurts them or makes them sick. This suggests a conscious categorization.
No one has proven to me that humans are more intelligent than cetaceans.