Categories such as that associated with the word “man” are actually categories of categories. On the phenomenalist level, which is the ultimate foundation of knowledge, even the phrase “Noam Chomsky,” which isn’t associated with a category of people but with a person, isn’t associated with a grouping of individuals but with an individual, and thus isn’t a category on the physicalist level—there’s only one physically existing Noam Chomsky—is associated with a category nonetheless, just a category not of physically existing people but of sensory complexes. There are myriad sensory complexes that count as Chomsky: his face young and old, his face from one angle and another, etc.

The word “man,” then, which includes in its denotation Noam Chomsky, Michael Tomasello, etc., is associated with a physicalist category of phenomenalist categories. It’s associated with a grouping of individuals, the individuals themselves being groupings of sensory complexes.

Just as there are myriad people who count as men—that’s what makes it a category—there are myriad sensory complexes that count as Chomsky.