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The map/territory insight is a very impressive one, and can often cut to the center of a debate, decomposing it into an argument about semantics. My two favori
by andrewla 8y ago
The map/territory insight is a very impressive one, and can often cut to the center of a debate, decomposing it into an argument about semantics.
My two favorite examples are the idea of defining "species" and the idea of defining "life". In both cases we have rough criteria, but both are things that are kind of "we know it when we see it" but with the understanding that at the edges we have cases that don't quite work because the definitions are convenience (and descriptive), not fundamental (and prescriptive).
So people debating whether horses and donkeys are the same species because they can interbreed are trying to make the territory fit the map.
And people debating whether a virus is "alive" are also trying to make the territory fit the map.
Both "being alive" and "belonging to the same species" are useful concepts on a gross level -- distinguishing plants and rocks, and horses and monkeys, but they break down at the micro level, which is totally okay, because we don't need a perfect model for it to be useful, so long as we constrain ourselves to the domain where it is useful.
- TeMPOraL 8y agoYup. For some reason, to this day I remember how Paul Graham has put it in his criticism of philosophy[0]: > The real lesson here is that the concepts we use in everyday life are fuzzy, and break down if pushed too hard. (...) Outside of math there's a limit to how far you can push words; in fact, it would not be a bad definition of math to call it the study of terms that have precise meanings. Everyday words are inherently imprecise. They work well enough in everyday life that you don't notice. Words seem to work, just as Newtonian physics seems to. But you can always make them break if you push them far enough. Scott Alexander has an excellent essay on this too[1]. -- [0] - http://paulgraham.com/philosophy.html http://paulgraham.com/philosophy.html [1] - https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/21/the-categories-were-made-for-man-not-man-for-the-categories/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/21/the-categories-were-ma...
- fokinsean 8y agoReminds me of how Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance talks a lot about defining what "Quality" is. It breaks down really fast.