Trees standing by the waterside

A cliff full of trees by the waterside might become a picture in an album on mountains, forests or watercourses. Or on holidays, real estate, colours, dangers or many other things. One world contains all the categories imagined by all.

Human category forming goes on continually. It improves our understanding as it is basic to the way the human brain works. The downside of using categories includes the limiting reductionism of labelling and racial stereotyping. Go see what Aristotle had to say about categorisation; and the place of categories in the early ideas of Spearman on studying intelligence.

Categories should not detract from enjoying the living nature. They enhance enjoyment and expand knowledge. A big part of botany has to do with the links, hierarchies and sequences among categories. Botany links with other categories of science: geology, chemistry, physics, zoology and many other networked sciences of our knowledge ecology, one living “thing”.