principle

The higher-order, abstract concept used to categorize material reality and other concepts. Ideas often forms hierarchical structures in which simpler and "higher" concepts encompass lower, more material, or more discrete, specific concepts.

For example:

(meaning, from abstract to material)

• Thing
  • Object
    • Seat
      • Fallen log
      • Rock
      • Chair
    • Man-made object (craft)
      • Furniture
        • Chair
          • Stool

An object can fall into multiple categories. A chair is both a seat and a crafted object.

In fact, there are problems here that highlights the slipperiness of language. We could substitute the word Seat for Chair entirely. In which case, we have accepted a more abstract meaning of the word. We all have a different image in our mind when we think of "chair," and what constitutes a chair can be a bit fuzzy. Is a doll's chair a true chair or copy of one? As mentioned before, is a rock a chair?

We are actually discussing overlapping problems with conceptualizing what an idea is:

The problem of language, which can be described in this way: language is an inherently fallible way of categorizing reality because words have no intrinsic meaning, and that meaning shifts between users and over time.

The other is the problem of idea, which is that thought is inextricably linked to language and subjective reality. This is why we can disagree on seemingly fundamental things, and why we say things like "your truth." We can never truly see something from another's eyes or objectively.

Plato discusses the distinction between a chair and the ideal "chairness" (form of chair) within his Theory of Forms, discussed in Book X of The Republic. The idea of Forms is interesting, but

The problem is made worse by the fact that we are trying to describe the idea of an idea. We can expect there to be some form of circular reasoning by nature of what we're trying to do. Loops (without conditions to stop the loop) are generally bad, in the sense that they represent a failure. In programming, an infinite loop manifests as a bug or complete crash of the system.

I believe we can escape the loop by appealing to an even more abstract principle than "idea" or by finding an example of what an idea is in reality. Plato's theory attempts to define the purest form of idea as a fundamental aspect of the universe. His Forms exist outside of the mind of the thinker. Interestingly, he believed the Form of Good was the highest and most fundamental form from which all the others emerge. This is similar to the Christian notion of God being love, or goodness.

purpose
point
meaning