Importance of Features

A characteristic is a trait that is part of a thing, a person, or some kind of phenomenon. In this context, it can be clearly observed that its importance lies in the fact that it helps us to differentiate and stand out, as well as to distinguish equalities.

The philosophy and the psychology have dealt with the concept of characteristic in the analysis of knowledge processes. A thing is formed by its essence and by a series of attributes or accidents, that is, by some characteristics. However, the sum of all of them is not equal to their essence. Let's think about him human being.He has a whole series of elements that define him, but he can lack some of them and continue being an individual.

There are main and secondary characteristics. The first ones are essential to know something and the secondary ones do not have the same relevance. For this reason, traditional philosophy has distinguished the essential from the accidental.

Distinguishing the characteristics of people

Knowing a reality means distinguishing those essential aspects from those that are not. To carry out an analysis, it is very common to carry out a classification. A good example is the classification of

living beings, in which individuals are gradually described from their general characteristics to the most specific and particular ones.

In everyday language we need to describe what surrounds us. For this, it is necessary to use words that refer to certain characteristics of what we describe.

A tool in science and literature

Scientific analysis has to be rigorous, so it is necessary to carry out a study of the phenomena and, therefore, of all the characteristics or traits that are manifested.

The literature explains, describes and narrates stories, the use of characteristics being essential when telling how the characters or situations are.

When we think about the characteristics of an event, several considerations must be taken into account. These can be objective or subjective. It is also possible to speak of different degrees in the same characteristic (something can be boring, very boring or tremendously boring). The words, mainly the adjectives, are qualifying how are the characteristics that we use when communicating.

The two fundamental points

The concept of characteristic has two axes: equality and difference. If we look at something uniform (think of a huge desert), its characteristics are really limited, so basically everything related to sand can be talked about. On the other hand, when contemplating a jungle landscape, the characteristics that appear multiply. The conclusion is evident: what is the same or similar reduces the number of characteristics and what is different quantitatively increases the use of qualities, traits or characteristics.

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