Cited
'A category mistake, or category error, or categorical mistake, or mistake of category, is a semantic or ontological error in which things belonging to a particular category are presented as if they belong to a different category,[1] or, alternatively, a property is ascribed to a thing that could not possibly have that property.'
(1) Blackburn, Simon (1994). The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Oxford University Press. p. 58
Cited
'One might have expected this entry to start with a definition of ‘category mistake’. However, giving an explicit informative definition of category mistakes is no easy task. A typical dictionary definition looks like this: “The error of assigning to something a quality or action which can only properly be assigned to things of another category, for example treating abstract concepts as though they had a physical location” (Stevenson 2010). But such definitions are at best too vague to be useful, and at worst simply incorrect.' Stevenson, A. (ed.), 2010, Oxford Dictionary of English, third edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Suffice for this satire meets category error posting...
Whales are mammals.
Human beings are mammals.
Whales are cetaceans.
Human beings are homo sapiens.
(Or, as some would prefer, human beings)
Whales are physically much larger than human beings.
Whales are in a different ontological (nature and existence) category than human beings.
Whales are in a different class (Langer) than that of human beings.
Therefore, the figure of whales should not be measured by human standards.
Cited
'There are currently around 90 recognised (recognized, my add) species of whales, dolphins and porpoises; they are collectively known as ‘cetaceans’ or simply ‘whales’.'
Note for some (not all) of my US readers, my PhD is from Wales, not Whales...
BLACKBURN, SIMON (1996) Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
PIRIE, MADSEN (2006)(2015) How To Win Every Argument, Bloomsbury, London.
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