11.9 Dumbbell Theories


We often dichotomize the world. "Such divisions all have flaws but often give us useful ways to think." But, dichotomies can lead us into making false analogies. So, "dividing things in two is a good way to start, but one should always try to find at least a third alternative. If one cannot, one should suspect that there may not be two ideas at all, but only one, together with some form of opposite."

"Before we're drawn into dumbbell schemes, we owe it ot ourselves to try to understand their strange attractiveness."

(NB: Explaining this attractiveness might be at the root of the next chapter, which focuses a great deal upon categorization, but uses as a foundation the idea of drawing structured analogies between two domains: structural and functional.)


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