Recognition Systems and the Relational Nature of Categorising
The general principle of a recognition system is the if…then relation:
If event x occurs in the recognisable domain, then event y occurs in the recognition system.
In neurological systems, recognition entails the systematic correlation of categorisables with neural activities that categorise. For perception, this means correlating difference (i.e. information) external to the system with difference internal to it. Categorisation is not the passive registration of pre-existing properties but the activation of internal differentiations in response to external differentiability.
Crucially, the identity of any categorising activity within the system is not absolute but relational: it is defined by contrast with other categorising activities within the same system. A categorisation has no meaning in isolation. Each is part of a structured network of possible distinctions, and it is only within that network — through its systemic contrast with others — that it acquires identity.
This aligns with the principle that categories are not discovered but made: they are constituted through systemic relations among categorisings, not through a one-to-one mapping of internal signs onto external essences.