This is an important distinction, that show in its cleanest form in mathematics—where you have constructive definitions from the one hand, and axiomatic definitions from the other. It is important to note though that is is not quite a dichotomy—you may have a constructive definition that assume aximatically-defined entities, or other constructions. For example: vector spaces are usually defined axiomatically, but vector spaces over the real numbers assume the real numbers—that have multiple axiomatic definitions and corresponding constructions.
In science, there is the classic “are wails fish?”—which is mostly about whether to look at their construction/mechanism (genetics, development, metabolism...) or their patterns of interaction with their environment (the behavior of swimming and the structure that support it). That example also emphasize that we natural language simplly don’t respect this distinction, and consider both internal structure and outside relations as legitimate “coordinates in thingspace” that may be used together to identify geometrically-natural categories.
This is an important distinction, that show in its cleanest form in mathematics—where you have constructive definitions from the one hand, and axiomatic definitions from the other. It is important to note though that is is not quite a dichotomy—you may have a constructive definition that assume aximatically-defined entities, or other constructions. For example: vector spaces are usually defined axiomatically, but vector spaces over the real numbers assume the real numbers—that have multiple axiomatic definitions and corresponding constructions.
In science, there is the classic “are wails fish?”—which is mostly about whether to look at their construction/mechanism (genetics, development, metabolism...) or their patterns of interaction with their environment (the behavior of swimming and the structure that support it). That example also emphasize that we natural language simplly don’t respect this distinction, and consider both internal structure and outside relations as legitimate “coordinates in thingspace” that may be used together to identify geometrically-natural categories.