And therein lies the necessity of articulate description, whether divisional or relative...nuriceMay 25 2007, 20:07:51 UTC
My post seemed to imply that I seek a complete detachment from categorical discussion, rather than simply reducing our dependency on it. Of course classification is a remarkably effective tool to use in discussing anything, and in a world where "proving one's point" often leads to such things as "getting one's way" it is almost essential to have well-defined conceptual boundaries.
The most elegent analogy (that I have arrived at) to my proposal is to painting: I lement the lack of beauty involved with a full, in-colour description and see our present language akin to the absolute, divisional lines available in colouring books. Lines are necessary, quick and to the point, but there's so much more available to us.
What I'm trying to rationalize to myself is whether or not descriptive, relative terms are anything more than divisional terms on the next level of abstraction - "darker than" and "lighter than" are only, after all, simply placing divisions between the collection of things darker than and lighter than some given value.
I may further review this point after more sleep and coffee :D
The most elegent analogy (that I have arrived at) to my proposal is to painting: I lement the lack of beauty involved with a full, in-colour description and see our present language akin to the absolute, divisional lines available in colouring books. Lines are necessary, quick and to the point, but there's so much more available to us.
What I'm trying to rationalize to myself is whether or not descriptive, relative terms are anything more than divisional terms on the next level of abstraction - "darker than" and "lighter than" are only, after all, simply placing divisions between the collection of things darker than and lighter than some given value.
I may further review this point after more sleep and coffee :D
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