Hierarchies of Categories

But there is also much more that I know about the behavior of Fred, not just because he is a Florist, but because he is a Shop keeper. I know, for example, that there will be money exchanged for the transaction, I will get a receipt, and so on. This behavior is common to both florists and grociers, or any other type of shop keeper. I know Fred is a Human being, and thus exhibits all the human behaviors of language and the like. I know he is a Mammal, and a Material Object.

At each level of abstraction I know certain bits of information. That information is applicable to all lower, that is nore specialized, levels of abstraction.

[audio] [real] Text to accompany slide26, in Chapter 1 of An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming