The Taxonomic Fallacy Goes Beyond Biology.

The Taxonomic Fallacy applies far beyond biological taxonomy; taxonomy is just its clearest illustration. 

The essence of the fallacy is: Mistaking a human classificatory system (a framework of definitions, labels, or categories) for a reflection of reality itself.

So anywhere humans create systems of classification, definition, or convention, this fallacy can occur. Here are several broader domains where The Taxonomic Fallacy applies:

1. Psychology and Mental Health

Example:
Calling someone “depressed” or “neurodivergent” is based on current diagnostic categories (DSM-5, ICD-10, etc.), which are human-constructed frameworks that shift over time.
In another era, or within another cultural context, the same symptoms might have been classified as “melancholy,” “nervous exhaustion,” or even “spiritual crisis.”

Fallacy:
Believing that the label is the condition, rather than a way of organizing observable patterns.

The Taxonomic Fallacy here is mistaking diagnostic categories for the realities of human suffering and neurobiology.

2. Race, Gender, and Identity Classifications

Example:
Treating racial or gender categories as intrinsic divisions in nature rather than social or linguistic constructs.

For instance, saying “race X is inherently this or that” assumes the boundaries and labels we use correspond to fixed, natural kinds rather than human-devised systems of classification that vary across time and culture.

Fallacy:
Confusing socially constructed categories for biological or metaphysical truths.

The Taxonomic Fallacy here appears whenever categories invented to describe social patterns are mistaken for immutable features of reality.

3. Political or Ideological Labels

Example:
Labeling someone a “liberal,” “conservative,” “socialist,” or “fascist” and assuming those terms capture the person’s real, essential identity.

These words are taxonomic tools within political discourse, not ontological descriptions of human beings.

Fallacy:
Believing that the label fully is the person’s position, rather than a shorthand for a cluster of beliefs that may or may not fit neatly.

The Taxonomic Fallacy here is mistaking political typologies for the essence of belief itself.

4. Medicine and Disease Classification

Example:
Treating “disease entities” as real things in themselves rather than conceptual groupings of symptoms and physiological states.

For instance, “cancer” is a family of diverse diseases with varying causes, yet we often speak of it as a single object.

Fallacy:
Confusing a medical classification (which serves diagnosis and treatment) for a single ontological entity existing as such in nature.

The Taxonomic Fallacy here is reifying a label for a complex biological process.

5. Law and Ethics

Example:
Believing that what is “legal” is necessarily “moral,” or that laws define moral truth.

Legal systems are human taxonomies of permitted and forbidden actions, and they change with societies.

Fallacy:
Equating legal categories (lawful/unlawful) with objective moral truths (good/evil).

The Taxonomic Fallacy here is mistaking juridical frameworks for moral reality.

6. Science and Cosmology

Example:
Terms like “planet,” “element,” or “species” are classification constructs that have changed as knowledge evolves.

Pluto, for instance, was reclassified from “planet” to “dwarf planet” in 2006.

Fallacy:
Assuming that these categories reflect unchanging natural kinds rather than evolving conceptual boundaries within scientific discourse.

The Taxonomic Fallacy here occurs when scientific definitions are mistaken for timeless ontological truths.

7. Art and Aesthetics

Example:
Arguing that something “is not art” because it doesn’t fit a particular definition or historical movement.

Artistic classification (impressionist, modernist, abstract, etc.) serves analysis, not ontological definition.

Fallacy:
Confusing our categories of style or genre for the essence of artistic value or identity.

The Taxonomic Fallacy here is mistaking aesthetic classification for intrinsic artistic status.

8. Linguistics and Semantics

Example:
Believing that the way one language divides the world (like color terms or kinship words) reflects objective divisions in reality.

For example, some languages have a single word for what English divides into “blue” and “green.”

Fallacy:
Assuming the structure of one linguistic taxonomy corresponds directly to the structure of the world itself.

The Taxonomic Fallacy here is mistaking linguistic partitions for natural ones.

9. Theology and Religion

Example:
Treating doctrinal or denominational distinctions (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Sunni, Shia, etc.) as eternal or divinely fixed rather than humanly constructed interpretive systems.

Fallacy:
Believing that one’s theological taxonomy exhausts the nature of the divine or ultimate reality.

The Taxonomic Fallacy here is mistaking theological frameworks for the divine reality they seek to describe.

10. Technology and Artificial Intelligence

Example:
Dividing AI into categories like “narrow,” “general,” or “superintelligent,” and assuming those labels capture real ontological kinds rather than conceptual benchmarks within human discourse.

Fallacy:
Confusing descriptive models for the nature of intelligence itself.

The Taxonomic Fallacy here is mistaking the architecture of classification for the architecture of reality.

In summary

The Taxonomic Fallacy can appear wherever humans:

1. Create systems to organize complexity.
2. Forget that those systems are contingent, not absolute.
3. Begin to treat their maps as the territory.

In short:

It’s not just about biology —it’s about epistemology. Wherever a classification serves as a stand-in for reality itself, the Taxonomic Fallacy is at work.