Importance of Categorization

Women, Fire and Dangerous things. All have something in common, right? Wrong. I mean, I'm sure you can find some common boundary between each one of these, but what George Lakoff describes, is that things are categorized together on the basis of what they have in common, with the idea that categories are defined by common properties. (Pg.5) It has come to realization that categorization is far more complex than that. A new theory has emerged, called prototype theory. As Lakoff describes it, When we intentionally perform any kind of action, we are using categories. When we move about the world, we automatically categorize people, animals, physical objects, etc. They aren't categories of things, they are of abstract entities. After reading this article, it changed my whole outlook on my thoughts about categories. The way I experience and imagine categorization, I think of it as far more than just simply items with common characteristics. It is now more of a prototype-based conception in which we categorize.