This document discusses different perspectives on alphabetical order and organization. It notes that alphabetical order can vary based on language or name components prioritized. True knowledge comes from categorization that matches natural divisions between ideas. The document cautions against views that see organization as either completely subjective or that there is only one true system, and offers examples of topics like planetary classification that accommodate different perspectives.

1. Alphabetization
& its discontents
09-01-2015 DTC356-01

3. Alphabetical Order
simple, right?

4. Alphabetical by what?
Avicenna vs. Ibn Cida
MacArthur vs. McArthur
Saint Petersburg vs. St. Petersburg vs. Санкт-
Петербу́ рг
Author vs title vs director vs actor

5. What’s wrong with the
natural order?

6. What’s useful about the
natural order?

7. Random:
• Having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective
• proceeding, made, or occurring without definite
aim, reason, or pattern:
Arbitrary:
• Based on or subject to individual judgment or
preference
• Determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and
not by necessity, reason, or principle

8. Random organization has no
pattern.
Arbitrary organization has a
meaningless pattern.

9. The Joints of Nature

10. “The joints of nature” =
where categories divide
“naturally” or easily.

11. True knowledge is
what happens when
the joints of ideas
match the joints of
nature.

12. Two easy errors:
Some people are afraid that acknowledging that
different perspectives see the world differently give
everyone permission to invent their own reality.
Other people are afraid that insisting there is one “true”
way to perceive reality give everyone permission to
enforce their personal preferences on others.

13. How do the examples below
deal with this question:
Pluto becoming a dwarf planet and being removed
from the list of planets.
Mendeleev’s periodic table and other versions of the
periodic table.

14. The last butcher-based metaphor
you will get in this class:
There are many ways to carve a pig, but none of them
have the snout connected to the tail. - Umberto Eco