Is there a true tree of life or not?

The magic and also problem with conceptualization is that it is orthogonal, ie, that ”class” has an orthogonal relation to “object”.

The magic with this property is that it allows us to categorize objects via infinite classes (ie, types).

The problem with the property is that “class” and “object” are fundamentally incompatible, because their orthogonal relation means that every single class contains several classes and that every single object consists of several objects, since these facts compose an effective barrier to classes and objects being discrete at the same time. The property thus prevents us from distinguishing both objects and classes at the same time.

This problem with conceptualization means that it is impossible to find a consistent classification of a dichotomously propagating process (like the idea of a true tree of life), because it requires that both classes and objects are discrete at the same time.

This impossibility opens for the question: is it a consequence of a flaw in conceptualization or in the idea of a true tree of life? The answer is: neither. It is not a consequence of a flaw at all, but of that conceptualization is orthogonal. This unexpected answer can lead to reformulation of the question into: is it conceptualization or the idea of a true tree of life that is correct, that is, is there a true tree of life or not? The answer is: which of them that is “correct” depends on how we define “correct”, but there obviously is not a true tree of life, at least not one we can find.

The impossibility is actually what is called Russell’s paradox. Conceptualization (ie, classification) simply ends in paradox because it is orthogonal. This impossibility is thus not something we can understand as a consequence of anything else than the orthogonality of conceptualization itself. The question which of “the described” and ”the description” that is ”correct” thus has no unambiguous “correct” answer, but Bertrand Russell showed that the answer: “the description” is paradoxically contradictory. He thus excluded the answer: “the description”, thereby leaving ”the described” as the not excluded answer. It means that “the described” is the “correct” answer independently of how we define “correct”, since the answer “the description” is paradoxically contradictory.

This problem appears to be what Ludwig Wittgenstein pointed at with his statement that “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” („Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen.“). The idea of a true tree of life simply can’t be formulated consistently.

Another contribution to understanding of conceptualization http://menvall.wordpress.com/