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The fact that we conceptualize reality, that is, partition reality into objects and classes of objects, means that it is inconsistent, ie, contradictory, to confuse the concept “object” with the concept “class”.
Cladistics, however, turns this steak up-side-down by simply claiming that it is not inconsistent, ie, that it is consistent, to confuse the concept “object” with the concept “class”.
This triangulation is obviously circular, ie, leads our conceptualization of reality from its starting point back to its starting point (thus appearing to make it possible to construct any “tree of life”), but this circularity is not the main problem with the triangulation. The main problem with it is instead that it starts from objects, but ends in classes in the form of Russell’s paradox. The back side of the starting point is not the same thing as the front side of it, but instead a paradox.
This problem is actually the general problem with inconsistencies: confusion of them does not solve them, but ends in paradox. Instead, the consistent handling of inconsistencies is compromise. We can’t be principally orthodox about any single opinion, but instead has to draw arbitrary boundaries for every single opinion. Principles run counter each other so that every principle has a trade-off with another principle. Concerning the principles (ie, concepts) “object” and “class”, this trade-off is between whether an object is a class, and vice versa, because comprehending an object as a class, and vice versa, makes classes paradoxically contradictory between objects, ie, leaves one object paradoxically contradictory between two classes. The comprehension of an object as a class, and vice versa, does thus not equalize objects and classes, but instead leads into a paradox between them, because they can’t be equal per definition, since we distinguish them. We can’t both distinguish and equalize them at the same time, since it is contradictory.
The cladistic triangulation does thus not resolve the contradiction between “object” and “class” (ie, between quantity and quality), but just leads into a paradoxical contradiction between them (ie, Russell’s paradox). The cladistic belief that there is a consistent solution of the triangulation down the road is thus wrong. Instead, the only thing there is down the road is infinite recursion. It doesn’t matter how much data cladists include in their optimization of “the true tree of life”; never will they arrive to a non-contradictory solution, because it is a self-contradiction.
Another contribution to understanding of conceptualization http://menvall.wordpress.com/
2013-01-25 17:46:11