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Showing posts from January, 2023

Deflating Taxonomies -- do we really need another concept to organize knowledge?

Response to Heather Hedden's " Taxonomy Definition " -- https://accidental-taxonomist.blogspot.com/2022/12/taxonomy-definition.html   Hey Heather:   Thanks for posting. It really inspired me to write down a few things that I had been thinking about. It's taken me a while to put my finger on exactly what it was that set me spinning. Here's my take: I just don't like the word "taxonomy" (other than as the name for the practice of arrangement). A "taxonomy" -- as a thing -- is just really hard to pin down. For some reason, Wayne Booth's memorable expression "simply the flinging of Greek-fed, polysyllabic bullshit" comes to mind. I can almost feel one of my grad school mentors standing over my shoulder, talking about Wittgenstein's language-games and Kuhn's guidance on the normalization of science (and practice). Ultimately, I'm just not sure what the word actually does for us. I don't think Cutter or Melvi...