Categorization

Categorization is the process in which different entities ( objects, activities, abstractions ) are considered the same. It is a fundamental cognitive process in perception and understanding of concepts and objects, the decision-making process and in all types of interaction with the environment.

Categorization and classification mean basically the same thing, " classification " but more frequently used in mathematics or engineering, " categorization " in philosophy and psychology. The term " categorization " may also include the set of classes.

There are various ideas about how categorization works, but condition is always an abstraction.

The Classic View

The classical Aristotelian view is that categories are discrete entities that are characterized by a set of properties that are common to all its elements. It is believed that this form the conditions which are both necessary and sufficient for the detection of importance.

Cognitive science perspective

In the 1970s, was spread by the research of Eleanor Rosch and George Lakoff, the idea that categorization can be viewed as a process that is based on prototypes. The prototype semantics assumes that the ideal categorizations never happen exactly, but only an abstract prototypes can gradually converge.

Hierarchical order

The categorization could also be organized hierarchically, especially when it comes to taxonomies: for every term sub-concepts, in turn, exist for a given set of terms preambles. But even these organizations have problem cases in which one can not say exactly where an element is to be positioned.

Extension and intension ( term scope and connotation ) stand in a reciprocal relationship: the general term has higher concept scale and lower conceptual content. The more specific term has lower term scope at a higher conceptual content. The most specific term is the individual term. Its features are infinite and cognitively inaccessible.

Sources

• Cognitive Science
• Semantics
• Philosophy of mind
• Epistemology