18. Misclassification

If we are naturally analytic creatures, we are naturally classifying creatures as well. We come to know things more fully by associating them with other things, specifically by grouping them together with other things they are similar to. (You will recall that this is the first step in the process of logical definition.) The misclassification of things—taking an apple for an orange—can have serious consequences. A book incorrectly cataloged in a large library may be effectively lost for years. We misclassify things because we fail to properly identify them in the first place, and we do that because we are not paying attention.