The word category admits several references in our language and can then refer to: that group in which knowledge is included or classified; hierarchies at the behest of a career, a competition, social position, or a profession; the distinction that a person holds; and in philosophy it expresses the abstract notion that allows distinguishing existing entities.
Each grouping in which knowledge will be classified
A category is each of the basic groups in which all knowledge can be included or classified.
Hierarchical classification in sports, social, work, academic ...
Also, a category is each of the hierarchies established in a profession, sports competition, in the social plane, or career.
In the sports world it is common for the competitions of each sport to be categorized, for example in boxing, it is the weight of the boxers that determines in which category they must fight, so we will find the heavyweight, featherweight, among others.
In tennis it is simpler, the categorization since there are youth and adults, the latter being the ones who have the possibility of playing the most important tournaments and of course winning the millions of dollars in prizes that many offer.
With regard to football, the age group is in charge of demarcating the category to which each player belongs, for example in the national teams there will be the under 17, the under 20, and the older team, which is the one that will play the soccer world cup. .
Socially, the communities are categorized into upper, middle and lower class, a fact that is determined by their labor income, or inheritance, that is, the family from which they come, if there is an aristocratic origin that imposes belonging to the class high.
From the foregoing it follows that one of the most widespread uses of this word is that it allows classifying elements, ordering groups that have similar qualities, even in each category sub categories may appear, that is, differentiations that are made between the components of a group , according to the greater or lesser hierarchy that they present between them.
Distinction held by a person or thing, which distinguishes it from the rest and makes it unique
On the other hand, in common parlance, the word category is generally used to account for the class, distinction or status that something or someone holds. “We will move to a much more upscale building.”
The class, the category of something will normally be given by the characteristics of the thing or the person; in the first case it will be the noble, quality materials that make it up, and in the second case the finesse with which it acts and behaves, and of course on the physical plane, the use of clothing and accessories that give it an aesthetic distinctive of the common people.
Application in the philosophical field that defines it as an abstract knowledge that allows differentiating the entities
And at the behest of the Philosophy, a category is that abstract and general notion from which entities are recognized, differentiated and classified.
What the categories make it possible to carry out is a hierarchical classification of all the entities present in the world; those entities that share characteristics and are similar will be grouped together in the same category, while those other related entities will make up a higher category and so on.
According to Philosophy, it is the categories that allow man to know the world that surrounds him; since the process of knowledge is not something simple, but rather complex from which the knowledge of the singular is interpreted from the general.
The greek philosopher Aristotle he was the first to use the categories in philosophy.
For Aristotle, a category is each of the abstract notions in which reality is organized, while there are ten: substance (the initial base of everything that exists and that will be preserved despite all the transformations that occur), amount (magnitude, extension, number, degree of development, which allows dividing things into heterogeneous or homogeneous), quality (what people and objects have), relationship (things do not exist apart from the relationship), place (space that a body occupies), weather (matter in motion presents cycles), situation (the disposition of something with respect to the place it occupies), condition (indispensable situation for the existence of another), action (it is necessary for there to be an effect on things) and passion (intense emotions and feelings).
And in the Kantian philosophy, a category is each of the forms of understanding, being for him the categories: cause (everything that causes or produces a change in another) and effect (the change that causes the cause).
