typology

A typology is a human-made systematic classification scheme that organizes a domain of phenomena into distinct, mutually exclusive types based on shared structural or functional characteristics. Parameters: (1) the classification criteria (dimensions along which types differ), (2) the set of types defined by particular combinations of criteria values, (3) the exhaustiveness condition (whether all cases in the domain must be classifiable), (4) the criteria's independence (whether dimensions can co-vary or must be orthogonal). Persistence mechanism: persists through academic taxonomies, classification standards, research methodology frameworks, and the conceptual schemas embedded in disciplinary training; re-instantiated whenever a new domain requires systematic categorization. A typology is distinguished from a simple list by its systematic criteria and from a hierarchy by its typically flat or multi-dimensional type space rather than a single parent-child tree. [formal: typologia | substrate: mind | horizon: generations | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.05]