It is in the nature of the human mind to categorize things. Unlike a cat, we will categorize what is a book, what is a chair, what is a magazine, what is a pencil. We are always at work categorizing. And by categorizing, we are both setting things apart from each other and grouping things together with each other. The "and" and the "or", it would seem, is more deeply entrenched in the human mind than in the brain of our fellow beasts. And through this ability to categorize, we are able to create new forms, new tools, new songs, new paintings, new novels. We combine bits of old forms in new ways, discarding that which does not meet our purpose. And when a new form acquires a certain degree of recognition from society, that form will acquire more form as you will, more definition. Take the personal computer. It may have begun as a construct in the basements of some men we now call geniuses. But the idea of a personal computer certainly had no being 75 or 100 years ago. It was only after it was invented, used and adopted by millions that this form, this invention, this category, truly came into being.
We can now level some criticism at some ancient Platonists, who believed forms were eternal. Certainly the form form for a computer was not eternal. It was born, it came into being and will likely one day become obsolete.
It may be worthwhile in future posts to categorize what, if anything, is eternal. Is something that is eternal somehow divine? An electron may come close to being eternal (though electrons may not have existed before the big bang.). Is an electron divine? It seems absurd.
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