What do we really know about nominal classification systems

The problem of 'classification' is a general problem of life. Biology has shown that classification abilities are necessal)' for the survival of every organism. Human beings classify consciously. unconsciously and e\'en subconsciously in all situations. \Nhen we confrom a scientific problem, we try to solve it by first classifying the various parts of the problem. Therefore, the history of all branches of science is also a history of how these sciences have classified their research subject. 'Classification' always implies 'selection', too, because, as Koestler ([978: 20[) put it, our

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