Classification as a method

Week 2 — before the scheme meets a real case

A scheme earns its place by what it can classify

Not by a good story about where it came from. Every retired scheme in this course’s history is described by the structural gap it failed to accommodate, no invented “case zero” required.

Three schemes that broke

  1. Hostile / benign — a single axis, failed the first time a case read as both in the same week
  2. Indoor / outdoor / liminal — a spatial scheme, couldn’t place a phenomenon that changed category between observations
  3. The current scheme — classifies by behaviour under observation, not appearance or location

Four questions, not four boxes

Persistent. Recurring. Responsive. Dormant. Each is a question you ask of a case, never a label you file it under.

Ask each case four questions

  • does the behaviour hold steady every time it’s observed? → persistent
  • does it repeat on a pattern you can predict? → recurring
  • does it trigger on an action taken by the observer? → responsive
  • does it sit inactive until one of the above happens? → dormant

A case can answer yes to more than one.

PersistentRecurringResponsiveDormantnot mutually exclusive – a case can sit in more than one box

Membership is non-exclusive, on purpose

The old hostile/benign scale forced a single fit. This scheme doesn’t: a case can be tracked on two channels at once, and the classification is more accurate for it, no less rigorous.

Worked example, held for week 7

An object with a consistently affectionate, entirely benign baseline behaviour that, rarely and only while unobserved, does something else altogether. Classified persistent and dormant at the same time: two tracked channels on one case file, no forced choice required. Full write-up in week 7; this week only trains the move.

This week has no case of its own — by design

The classification move is the whole lesson. It gets tested for real starting week 5, and the object case held back for it gets its full write-up in week 7.

A case can belong to more than one category at once — two tracked channels on one case file, not a forced choice.

Next: week 3’s session

Nine independently-arrived-at traditions. This week’s vocabulary is what you’ll read them through.