Classification, at best, helps in developing heuristics. Such a classifying activity can never become a scientific theory. There are two things. (1) what makes

Classification, at best, helps in developing heuristics. Such a classifying activity can never become a scientific theory. There are two things. (1) what makes some phenomenon, any phenomenon, into X? This is the identity question. (2) Given a group, how to classify some phenomenon as an instance of X or an instance of Y, etc,. This is the individuation question. When we do "folk" science, we conflate the question of individuation with that of identity. It is like asking what makes something a cat, then coming up with a classificatory answer: oh, this image is a cat, that image, another cat, etc.