Shortly after I was lovingly given the nickname of the Taxonomist, I semi-facetiously made the statement that I was okay with it because “taxonomy is pretty much all there is.” Blank stares made it clear that more explanation was needed. My friends had already seen how handy it was to have taxonomist around, calling me over to rescue several conversations that had gotten bogged down in category errors. But they still didn’t quite get the centrality of the practice.
Not having something prepared in advance – and interrupted by the predictable heckler muttering “a taxonomist would say that, wouldn’t he?” – I had to push off my full explanation to a later date.
So now’s my chance. Why would I have made such an outlandish statement, even tongue somewhat-in-cheek, and what could I have meant by it?
We can start by recognizing that, at least to Ahl al-kitāb, God is the Original Taxonomist. In Genesis, on the very first day, we start off with splitting: “God divided the light from the darkness.” And almost as immediately comes the naming: “God called the light Day and the darkness… Night.” In following days, we get some dividing of waters and separating of firmament from waters and the naming of Heaven and Earth and Seas. All right out the taxonomist’s playbook: start with the big, easily distinguishable things, draw boxes around them, and give them intuitive, appealing names.
Skipping ahead a chapter, we find that the second gift given to mankind, after animal companionship (which is a pretty good one), was the gift of taxonomy. You might think Prometheus’ gift was more practical, but right away we see Adam, the first mortal taxonomist, giving names to “all the beasts of the field” and “whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” And just before this, we also get some foreshadowing about the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the careful reader will pick up on the fact that God will not take kindly to being usurped as Taxonomist-in-Chief.
So, at least to adherents of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, I am on somewhat solid footing. I mean, it’s clear that most of Genesis is about taxonomy! And I didn’t even get into the naming of rivers and lands and tribes and people…
In Chinese cosmology, we find yin and yang, the opposing forces of the taiji. the original duality that sprang from the limitless wuji that came before. I’ll have more to say about duality specifically in a future post, but until then we can be satisfied with recognizing more splitting, more naming.
So perhaps my statement is starting to sound a little less ludicrous. Taxonomy is a serious endeavor that humans have been grappling with for thousands of years and taxonomists deserve all the respect they get.
To understand why, we have to start by taking a quick look at what you do when you practice taxonomy. The lumping and splitting definition is apt, but there are several steps you have to go through to produce a useful taxonomy:
Notice that certain things are “alike” in some ways that matter and “different” in others.
Group like things together into useful categories, and separate out unlike things.
Name the groups and give them labels for easy reference.
Think of and list examples of things that belong in each group, preferably ones that demonstrate the meaning and purpose of having the groups in the first place.
Apply the taxonomy in novel situations, as a model of the world. Use the names and categories as a shared language, to facilitate communication with others. Expand your definitions of the categories, describing more features of each and the relationships that exist between them.
Refine the categories over time to be more useful. Split where you find meaningful distinctions between members, lump where you notice commonalities across groups.
My contention, then, is that this is basically a description of the steps required to be an intelligent agent in the world, the steps required to build a model, any model, of the world. It may not feel like we are consciously taking these steps all the time, but in many areas they are going on beneath the surface, hidden away but providing the lens through which we see the world and the language we use to describe it.
People thousands of years ago realized this fact and told stories and built whole frameworks to remind themselves of the importance. Today, judging by the reactions to my statement, people obviously need a reminder.
Luckily, as subscribers you will be subjected to a constant barrage of reminders (or, at least, a sporadic barrage… I was occupied this last week) and, if things go as intended, you may actually come away from it agreeing that taxonomy is pretty much all there is…