Meta is extrinsic. Mesa is intrinsic.
- Extrinsic Object (Si)
- Extrinsic Class (Ne)
- Intrinsic Object (Se)
- Intrinsic Class (Ni)
There’s a pig named Hamlet. He is the smallest one of his family of 6. There are 4 different kinds of properties you can assign to him.
1)The Extrinsic Object property. He’s the smallest (only in relation to the others in his group, extrinsic [Meta] depends on outside factors, his family in his case). You can easily assess this. Put him and his family on a scale see whos the lightest.
2) The Extrinsic Class property. He is a “runt”, a class (N) formed by members who all share the same extrinsic (Meta) property, namely they were the smallest of their litter. This puts him in the same class as the dog and cat on the farm as they were all runts. A runt is not intrinsically (Mesa) a runt. Were he to be born alone he’d be just a piglet. Poor pig, Someone should tell him.
3) The Intrinsic Object property. Hamlet is a pig. Why? What makes a pig a pig? Haven’t a clue, but we all know one when we see one, don’t we? Hamlet is a pig regardless of who he is with or where he is, the mood he’s in or what clothes he wears. A pig in human clothes is still a pig. A pig on the moon is also still a pig. This argument would still be tenable if we were to fry him up in my frying pan. This is like Hamlets mass. It’s the same wherever I position him in the universe at whatever speed we launch him. Contrast this with Hamlets weight. Here on earth he’s 60 pounds but on the moon he’s a lot lighter. Weight is an Extrinsic Object property. Change the location and thus the gravitational pull of the closest space-body and the weight changes.
4) The Intrinsic Class property. Because he is a pig he is a member of the the family Suidae, this group includes wild boars and warthogs too. The family Suidae is a class formed by all objects which share a certain intrinsic property. What property specifically? No, wrong question. Is it a snout? Antelopes have those too. Hooves? Horses have those, they aren’t pigs. A specific combination of everything? Warthogs have tusks, pigs don’t, but any 6 year old can tell you a warthog is a pig with tusks. Whatever extrinsic-oriented academia sounding answer Wikipedia might give is largely irrelevant anyhow because deep down inside, deep in our heart of hearts, we still know what we did when we were 6 years old. Warthogs are pigs in Africa with a great philosophy on life.