I'll check this out, thanks, this gets to the granularity, though I still wonder if our languages, to date, are primitive, and blocking us off from thinking of categories different from 'system'?
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What is a system?
"sys·tem noun 1.a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network.
"the state railroad system"
2. a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized scheme or method."
This is the mildy condensed version from wikipedia regarding the definition of system. I know that we classify a lot of things in the world as systems, for example: ecosystems.
It seems to me you are considering that maybe the world doesn't operate from a higher point of view as a "system", or that system is not the correct terminology? I think our definition of system might cover for what the world as we know very well. All the little parts of the world have a purpose. The ants, when they come out of the eggs have an internal rule set it seems. They know what it is they "do". They go right to it and that is all that they do the rest of their existance. Building their nests, protecting their nests, the queen and her role. I suppose the same can be said about most of nature. Its a lot to think about, as the diversity of it is amazing, but it is also fun to observe and ponder.
Exactly, I think you hit at it when you write: "it seems to me you are considering that maybe the world doesn't operate from a higher point of view as a "system", or that system is not the correct terminology?"
Plus, you give a useful example with the species of ants; for them, their humble interactions are relative to their existence. In contrast, for us, maybe the 'system' is the term we're bounded by relative to our existence. It may be the best frame of reference we can grasp. It could be our edge and we can't go further.
If that's the case, I wonder if evolution needs to advance further to get at some sharper-level species. Compared to a human, might a sharper-level species perceive the world operating at a higher point of view other than a 'system'? And I wonder how their languages might operate?
Most definitely primitive. Which is why we need math, musical notation, sign language, programming languages etc etc. They all get created to overcome limitations of spoken language. And they all have their own advantages and disadvantages. And they are all constantly evolving.
Here's a psychologist Wendall Johnson's view explaining why people misunderstand things easily - “Our language is an imperfect instrument created by ancient and ignorant men. It is an animistic language that invites us to talk about stability and constants, about similarities and normal and kinds, about magical transformations, quick cures, simple problems, and final solutions. Yet the world we try to symbolize with this language is a world of process, change, differences, dimensions, functions, relationships, growths, interactions, developing, learning, coping, complexity. And the mismatch of our ever-changing world and our relatively static language forms is part of our problem.”
I agree, the interaction of languages helps us appreciate the world. And that's a useful quote from Wendell Johnson. It reminds me of Wittgenstein's words, "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world".