Maritsa,
Let's see if I can make this a little more clearer by using a common enough example.
And to try to make it easier for you, Maritsa, this example will use a concrete object...a tomato.
Some people call a tomato a fruit. Does merely calling it a fruit make it objectively and factually a fruit? No.
Some people call a tomato a vegetable. Does merely calling it a vegetable make it objectively and factually a vegetable? No.
So which is it? Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? Objectively and factually.
To answer this question, we have to sift through
* the various attributes of a tomato
* the criteria we use to name something as a fruit.
* the criteria we use to name something as a vegetable.
Then we have to determine...decide...draw a conclusion...as to which attributes of a tomato fit "fruit", and which attributes fit "vegetable".
We define fruit botanically as: a ripened ovary (with seeds) of a flowering plant.
By this definition, fruits would include tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, green beans, peas, and even nuts and grains.
We define fruit culinarily, as a sweet and fleshy plant fruit, such as apples, oranges, bananas, and plums.
We define vegetable culinarily as all parts of herbaceous plants eaten as foods by humans. Under this definition, mushrooms, lettuce, asparagus, carrots, broccoli, garlic, green beans, cucumbers, and squash are vegetables.
So now we look at the attributes of tomatoes, to help us decide whether or not to name a tomatoe as a fruit or a vegetable.
Does a tomato have seeds? We cut the tomato open, see what we call seeds, and determine that yes, a tomato has seeds.
Is a tomato fleshy? We cut open a tomato, see juice, seeds, and a significant enough amount of fleshy bits to determine that yes, a tomato is fleshy.
Is a tomato sweet? We take a bite of a tomato, and.... Well, here it depends on what you consider sweet. Some people who avoid fruits like apples, oranges, and bananas might judge the tomato as sweet. Some people who eat a lot of candies, cakes, and sugary foods might judge the tomato as not at all sweet.
One way of helping solve this sweetness dilemma is:
If you were craving fruit juice, and ordered it at a restaurant, would you be satisfied if they gave you a large glass of unseasoned tomato juice? (What about unseasoned zucchini juice? Or unseasoned green bean juice?) I'm willing to bet that most people would feel tricked if they ordered fruit juice and got unseasoned tomato juice instead.
Another way of helping solve this dilemma is:
If you were craving fruit pie, and ordered it at a restaurant, would your craving for Fruit Pie be satisfied by a slice of Tomato Pie?
And finally, is a tomato part of an herbaceous plant which humans eat as food? Yes.
So, based on the definition of fruit,
Yes it has seeds, so it fits that criteria for calling it "fruit".
Yes it is fleshy, so it fits that criteria for calling it "fruit".
No, it is not what one would normally call sweet, so it does not fit that criteria for "fruit".
Yes, it is part of an herbaceous plant humans eat as food, so it fits the criteria for calling it a "vegetable".
So back to the original question.
Is a tomato objectively and factually a fruit or is it objectively and factually a vegetable?
It fits all criteria for what we call a "vegetable".
It does not fit all criteria for what we call a "fruit".
If we mean the botanical "fruit", then we would include tomatoes as an example.
If we mean culinary "fruit", then we would NOT include tomatoes as an example. (though we might still define it as a "non-sweet fruit")
And if we mean culinary "vegetable", then we would include tomatoes as an example.
Oh wait, but in 1883, the United Supreme Court unanimously decided that a tomato is a "vegetable", even though it is a botanical "fruit".
Notice that we had to make all sorts of decisions just to get this far.
We had to decide what criteria counted as "fruit".
We had to decide what criteria counted as "vegetable".
We had to decide what attributes of the tomato to pay attention to,
And we had to decide which attributes of a tomato to ignore for the purposes of this example.
We had to decide if the attributes fit or didn't fit the criteria we'd decided on.
And we have to decide if meeting two out of three criteria counts enough to label something as "fruit".
We also have to decide if we agree with the US Supreme Courts decision about what to call a tomato.
None of these decisions required us to evaluate like/dislike.
Like/dislike is only one type of "decision".
Combine all that information, all those decisions, all those criterias, all those findings, and we draw a conclusion of some kind. Namely whether or not to call a tomato a "fruit" or a "vegetable".
iow...we had to make all sorts of judgments, about a variety of things, just to decide whether we'll use the term "fruit" or "vegetable" when talking of "tomatoes".
(note, when I use the words "judging"/"judgments", I am defining those words as "the cognitive process of reaching a decision or drawing conclusions".)
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Originally Posted by Maritsa33
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(as per tcaudilllg)
