Kategória

Kategória is a term used across disciplines to denote a group or class of things that share common characteristics or relations. It is employed in everyday language to organize knowledge, objects, or ideas, and in specialized fields to formalize structures of classification.

The word derives from the Greek kategória, via Latin categoria, ultimately from kathgorein, meaning to predicate or to accuse. In Aristotle’s philosophy, categories are ten fundamental modes of being or predication, such as substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, state, action, and passion. The concept has evolved to refer more broadly to any framework for classifying entities.

In philosophy and cognitive science, categorization is the process of grouping objects, events, or concepts based on shared properties. Categories organize perception and thought, enabling reasoning and communication. Theories of categorization include definitional accounts, prototype- and exemplar-based approaches, and hierarchical or network-based models.

In mathematics and logic, category theory abstracts mathematical structures into objects and arrows (morphisms) that describe relationships. A category comprises objects, morphisms between objects, identity morphisms, and the composition of morphisms, which is associative. This framework provides a unifying language across fields such as algebra, topology, and computer science.

In information science and everyday use, a category refers to a division within a taxonomy or ontology used to organize data, products, or content. Categories facilitate navigation, search, and retrieval, and are often implemented with metadata and hierarchical, lexical, or faceted structures.

See also: Aristotle’s Categories, category theory, taxonomy, classification, ontology.