Anthony asked:

Why is it easier to discriminate than it is to make equal?

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In asking this question, you are showing that you have philosophical problems worrying you, and this
is generally the first hint that a good mind is struggling with meaning. I can't answer your question in
depth, of course. But I'll give you a hint where you can pursue the answer, if depth is what you need.

As creatures which have evolved in response to the need for accommodating to the habitat in which
we find ourselves, it is a non-negotiable demand on us to discriminate and differentiate — food from
poison, predators from harmless fellow creatures, solid from liquid, hot from cold, and so on.
Accordingly the totality of our perceptual as well as cognitive ability has been structured through
continuous adaptivity with a view to discerning signs that identify problematic objects by devices
which allow us to focus on and interpret by which marks one is distinguished from the other.
Stereoscopic vision and audition with their slight offset between the two ears/ eyes are obvious
instances of refinement, based on the principle that angled perception facilitates the "modelling" of
the perceptive source, as (e.g.) binoculars do not. Another example is colour: there is none in the
world as such, but our sensorium has devised a way of translating a certain bandwidth of
electromagnetic radiation (i.e. discriminating very minute gradations of heat) as colour; and this is
where our native impression of red as hot and blue as cold comes from. So one could put the
argument that without discrimination, no creature life would be possible — this ability is part of the
definitionof living things.

Let me recommend a very good book which deals largely with this issue, Man and Natureby Gregory
Bateson. It's an eye opener.

Jurgen Lawrenz

Sydney