Explaining Difficult Things, page 8

Dividing and Conquering, continued

Let’s take a simple example. Suppose you are trying to describe a cast-iron electric table lamp.

The taxonomy for lamps might look in small part as shown in Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2: A partial taxonomy for lamps.

What is the grammar for the universe of lamps?

It would be reasonable to assume that a light must be plugged in or unplugged.

Another rule might be that the lamp must have a light bulb, or else the bulb socket is empty.

To complete this, you would need to understand the taxonomy of light bulbs.

It’s a good thing that most of us automatically understand a great many grammars and taxonomies that include real-world subjects. In other words, we know the anticipated context of things and the rules about how they operate.

For the most part, experience and common sense teach us taxonomies and grammars about the objects we meet in the world.

To practice using grammars and taxonomies check out this Stretch Your Brain excercise.

Continued next page

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