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Yahoo, Google, del.icio.us and Platonic Idealism

This article explains why del.icio.us is praised, nobody uses dir.yahoo.com and google.com is not my default page anymore.

.. all this basing on a piece of some ancient philosophy : )

Plato has believed that everything what surrounds us is just a mere reflection of some higher truth. E.g. an oval drawn on the piece of paper is just a reflection of ideal concept of oval-ness. We bear this concept in our minds so we can easily recognize its shape. Similarly, a bowhead whale is being described as beleen whale. However, the reference baleen whale does not exist. It lives in a world of definitions forged by founders of modern taxonomy. Thus the link between taxonomy and domain of objects it describes, resembles a link between platonic world of ideas and the material world.

Agreeing with analogy described above, it is interesting to look at the process of building taxonomies like Yahoo! directory. This process starts with defining the domain. Next, throught the observation of simmilarities between its objects, categories are defined. At the end, hierachical relationships between categories are being estabilished. So one can perceive attempt to embedd the sense of our world into taksonomy as a attempt of taking insight of platonic world of ideas.

Something which Platon believed is not possible.

Thus taxonomy is not a reflection of some ideal order but rather a mere reflection of one's subjective point of view on reality. Should user trying to find some web page about literature look into "Arts and culture" or "Entertainment" category? Without switching to directory author's way of thinking a decision will be based on guessing.

There's no world of ideas and no sense within objects themselves. Sense is what we give to objects.

In Yahoo! directory sense is given by editor. In Google search engine it is a job of some robot. Do not trust strangers. Do not trust robots! Being forced to do so will rise your frustration, dissapointment and waste your time. Rather follow the sense of those who you trust - friends, family, experts, majority or ... you yourself.

With del.icio.us you can do it!

And this is an underlying reason why del.icio.us is praised, nobody uses dir.yahoo.com and google.com is not my default page anymore :)

philosophy folksonomy delicious yahoo google