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Categories We Live By

How We Classify Everyone and Everything

Author Gregory L. Murphy
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Paperback
$40.00 US
The MIT Press
On sale Jan 09, 2024 | 192 Pages | 9780262547031
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An in-depth analysis of how humanity’s compulsion to categorize affects every aspect of our lived experience.

The minute we are born—sometimes even before—we are categorized. From there, classifications dog our every step: to school, work, the doctor’s office, and even the grave. Despite the vast diversity and individuality in every life, we seek patterns, organization, and control. In Categories We Live By, Gregory L. Murphy considers the categories we create to manage life’s sprawling diversity. Analyzing everything from bureaucracy’s innumerable categorizations to the minutiae of language, this book reveals how these categories are imposed on us and how that imposition affects our everyday lives.

Categories We Live By explores categorization in two parts. In part one, Murphy introduces the groundwork of categories—how they are created by experts, imperfectly captured by language, and employed by rules. Part two provides a number of case studies. Ranging from trivial categories such as parking regulations and peanut butter to critical issues such as race and mortality, Murphy demonstrates how this need to classify pervades everything. Finally, this comprehensive analysis demonstrates ways that we can cope with categorical disagreements and make categories more useful to our society.
Acknowledgments ix


I Basics of Categories 1
1 Introduction 5
2 The Classical Tradition 13
3 Categories in the World and in the Head 37
4 Language, Culture, and Categories 51

II Case Studies 73
5 Legal Categories 79
6 Psychodiagnostic Categories 85
7 Categories and Power 95
8 Species 103
9 Peanut Butter, Potato Chips, Almond Milk 113
10 Racial Categories 119
11 Death, the Ultimate Category 133
12 Conclusions 147

Notes 165
References 167
Index 173
Gregory L. Murphy is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at New York University. He is the author of The Big Book of Concepts (MIT Press) and numerous scientific journal articles.
Gregory L. Murphy View titles by Gregory L. Murphy

About

An in-depth analysis of how humanity’s compulsion to categorize affects every aspect of our lived experience.

The minute we are born—sometimes even before—we are categorized. From there, classifications dog our every step: to school, work, the doctor’s office, and even the grave. Despite the vast diversity and individuality in every life, we seek patterns, organization, and control. In Categories We Live By, Gregory L. Murphy considers the categories we create to manage life’s sprawling diversity. Analyzing everything from bureaucracy’s innumerable categorizations to the minutiae of language, this book reveals how these categories are imposed on us and how that imposition affects our everyday lives.

Categories We Live By explores categorization in two parts. In part one, Murphy introduces the groundwork of categories—how they are created by experts, imperfectly captured by language, and employed by rules. Part two provides a number of case studies. Ranging from trivial categories such as parking regulations and peanut butter to critical issues such as race and mortality, Murphy demonstrates how this need to classify pervades everything. Finally, this comprehensive analysis demonstrates ways that we can cope with categorical disagreements and make categories more useful to our society.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix


I Basics of Categories 1
1 Introduction 5
2 The Classical Tradition 13
3 Categories in the World and in the Head 37
4 Language, Culture, and Categories 51

II Case Studies 73
5 Legal Categories 79
6 Psychodiagnostic Categories 85
7 Categories and Power 95
8 Species 103
9 Peanut Butter, Potato Chips, Almond Milk 113
10 Racial Categories 119
11 Death, the Ultimate Category 133
12 Conclusions 147

Notes 165
References 167
Index 173

Author

Gregory L. Murphy is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at New York University. He is the author of The Big Book of Concepts (MIT Press) and numerous scientific journal articles.
Gregory L. Murphy View titles by Gregory L. Murphy

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