Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 09 – 12 Classifications are tools for organizing and understanding reality. They should not be confused with intrinsic properties of the things being classified. Reality provides the objects, processes, similarities, differences, and relationships with which classifications must contend, but the boundaries of our categories depend upon the criteria byContinue reading “Excursus 143 — On Classification and Reality”
Tag Archives: classification
Excursus 130 – On Eponymous Schools of Thought
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 08 – 06 The names given to schools of thought are not always intellectually innocent. A name may begin as a convenient historical label and gradually influence how a theory is defined, interpreted, and defended. The problem is particularly acute when a theory or intellectual tradition is named afterContinue reading “Excursus 130 – On Eponymous Schools of Thought”
Excursus 128 – On Definitions and Their Instances
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 08 – 06 Philosophical inquiry necessarily depends upon definitions. New concepts are introduced, familiar concepts are refined, and distinctions are drawn between phenomena that ordinary language may treat as equivalent. Yet even a carefully formulated definition may leave the reader uncertain about what the author actually intends it toContinue reading “Excursus 128 – On Definitions and Their Instances”
Excursus 125 – On the Geometry of Ideas
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 31 Human beings have a natural tendency to arrange ideas along a single axis. Political doctrines, philosophical systems, and even scientific theories are commonly represented as occupying positions on a line, with one doctrine at one end and its supposed opposite at the other. Such representations areContinue reading “Excursus 125 – On the Geometry of Ideas”
Excursus 106 – Platonic and Aristotelian Essentialism in the Light of Continuous Variation
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 20 Modern discussions of essentialism often blur an important distinction between Plato and Aristotle. Although both philosophers are commonly described as essentialists, they understood the location and nature of essences in fundamentally different ways. For Plato, the essence of a thing does not belong to the individualContinue reading “Excursus 106 – Platonic and Aristotelian Essentialism in the Light of Continuous Variation”
Excursus 052 – On the Retrospective Expansion of Historical Concepts
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 18 Concepts are often coined to describe particular historical forms. As their explanatory success increases, they tend to expand retrospectively until they encompass earlier phenomena sharing only some of the defining characteristics of the original concept. Such expansion may be analytically useful, provided it is recognized asContinue reading “Excursus 052 – On the Retrospective Expansion of Historical Concepts”
Excursus 013 – On the Typology of Theoretical Structure: Simplicus vs. Compositum
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Bacon’s use of species infimae extends beyond biological kinds to encompass immediate sensory qualities. This broader usage invites a more general analysis of theoretical structure. However, because his use of the term extended beyond living kinds to include immediate sensory qualities, it invites a broader conceptualContinue reading “Excursus 013 – On the Typology of Theoretical Structure: Simplicus vs. Compositum”
Excursus 011 – On the Concept of Species
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 In Aristotelian logic, the species infimae (“lowest species”) occupied the final level of the genus–species hierarchy—the most specific universals that could still apply to more than one individual. They marked the boundary between universal and particular, serving as the lowest kinds that could figure in scientificContinue reading “Excursus 011 – On the Concept of Species”
Hossein Jorjani 