Category Error

There are three aspects of Being – Beauty, Truth, and Goodness. These are also called the big three transcendentals.

Science pursuits truth. Such truth should be objectively falsifiable. Art seeks beauty, which is in the realm of subjectivity. Religion serves for goodness, which is intersubjectively agreed, though one’s subjective belief is prerequisite.

Often these three are interchangeably misused. We call this misuse a category error or category mistake.

What’s scientifically correct is universally truthful for everyone and everywhere. But we don’t live and die for this truthfulness. What’s religiously, ethically, and spiritually good is righteous only for those who believe so, which is intersubjective. People live and die for this.

And what’s beautiful is most of the time for the eye of the beholder. It’s subjective. One could live and die for it, too. Appreciating artwork is more or less experiencing what artists see and believe.

Science is not for justifying religious value. Religion is not for explaining scientific truth. If mistakenly done so, science becomes pseudo-religion and religion pseudoscience.

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