Essay #21: Taxonomies & Teaching

Abstract

This essay is a report after many years of teaching upon the use of multi-celled taxonomies in the process of teaching philosophy. A taxonomy, as the term is being used here, is a multi-celled matrix. Four such are discussed in the essay. The first such has been used in a variety of courses that involve the philosophy of religion. It contrasts faith-based positions with gnostic, or knowledge based views, and applies those heading to the positions of the theist, atheist, agnostic, and the positivist. The second matrix discussed concerns the topic of the human soul, where that is understood as an immaterial component of a human being. As with the previous matrix, an eight–celled array is generated. The third scheme has a different geometry and yields what I call “the Pentacle of Knowledge”. It represents five possible positions concerning knowledge, or the lack thereof. The points of the pentacle combine to yield five quite distinct epistemic categories. The fourth and final matrix is both simpler, having only four cells, and yet much subtler. It involves crossing the ontological distinction of the abstract/concrete, with the logical distinction between universals and particulars. The discussion analyzes and illustrates each of the four categories and discusses their pedagogical usefulness, while providing some relevant bibliographical references.