3. The Categorisable And The Categorising Are Distinct

A domain that can be categorised is distinct from any categorising of it.[1] Categories are not “out there” to be discovered, but are established through the interaction of recognition systems with a categorisable domain, which potentially includes the categorising processes themselves. The categorisable domain is potential, the categorising is a process. 

Footnote:

[1] Models don’t “construct reality” — they are organisations of categorisations of the categorisable. All models are organisations of categorisations, not of the categorisable.

ChatGPT said:

Categorisation and the Distinction Between Process and Potential

A domain that can be categorised is distinct from any act of categorising it. Categories are not inherent properties of the world waiting to be discovered; rather, they are established through the interaction between recognition systems and a domain that affords categorisation. This domain includes not only the phenomena to be categorised but potentially the categorising processes themselves. The categorisable domain is potential; categorisation is a process.

This distinction underscores a crucial point: models do not “construct reality”. Rather, they are organisations of categorisations—structured ways of interpreting what can be categorised. All models organise not the world itself, but the ways in which it is rendered intelligible through acts of categorisation. They are meta-structures, shaped by recognition systems engaging with the potential for structure.