Categories are not restricted to nouns and visual objects; words of all parts of speech—adverbs, prepositions, pronouns, verbs—are categories evoked by appropriate circumstances; most categories are not visual or sensory at all, and theories of categorization that focus on visual objects miss where the real action is.

normativepending

Speaker

Douglas Hofstadter

Evidence Quote

Categories can be things like...please...There are certain circumstances where that word is evoked...words of all sorts...they are all categories...most of them are not visual...theories of of categorization mostly are involved with visual categories, visual objects. It's so mistaken. That is not where the action is. [45:31]

Source

Analogy as the Core of CognitionStanford
Created: 8/12/2026, 6:12:22 PM

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