CATEGORIES (Relativity of)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 366 ▶ |
| Object type | Epistemology, ontology or semantics |
According to BERTALANFFY: “The categories of experience or forms of intuition, to use KANT's term, are not a universal a priori, but rather they depend on the psycho-physical organization and physiological conditions of the experiencing animal, man included. This relativism from the biological standpoint is an interesting parallel to the relativism of categories as viewed from the standpoint of culture and language” (1962, p.75).
We are indeed enclosed in a “observational bubble” from both viewpoints and we should thus carefully practice ontological scepticism and hypothetical realism.
In G.M. WEINBERG's words: “The most dangerous pitfall in developing category systems is imagining that one system of paradigms is more ”real“ than another” (1975, p.34).