The Chinese Encyclopedia's Categories of Dogs, by Borges:
(a) belonging to the Emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tame, (d) sucking pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) included in the present classification, (i) frenzied, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with a very fine camelhair brush, (l) et cetera, (m) having just broken the water pitcher, (n) that from a long way off look like flies."
“We order the world according to categories that we take for granted simply because they are given.”
“An enemy defined as less than human may be annihilated.”
”All social action flows through boundaries determined by classification schemes, whether or not they are elaborated as explicitly as library catalogues, organization charts, and university departments.” (Darnton, French Cultural Tales)
These thoughts come from a book that seeks to explain the mindsets of 18th century frenchman with people of today. The point is made that a big portion of the way we make sense of the world comes from the way we classify things. To be honest, I think this is a lot deeper than I am able to grasp right now. All I can really think of now is the danger of letting established ways of classifying things determine how we see and interact with the world. It limits what we might consider proper and those things we might engage ourselves in otherwise. For example, cultural norms in worship services or how we approach learning in different disciplines; "this belongs to mathematics, this belongs to literature, and this belongs to history," whereas learning is one.
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