We start with two seemingly unconnected theories -- one from ancient wisdom, the other from modern sociology.

Toltec Mythology speculates that the human mind just uses five tools to formulate concepts:

The Five Conceptual Tools (Toltec Mythology):  Humans have the ability to:

  1. Accept concepts

  2. Reject concepts

  3. Clarify concepts

  4. Modify concepts

  5. Reinforce concepts

Similarly, when a group of social and cultural psychologists attempted to isolate the fundamental scales by which humans moralize, they agreed on just five as definite:

The Five Moral Foundations:

  1. Sanctity/Degradation

  2. Fairness/Cheating

  3. Care/Harm

  4. Loyalty/Betrayal

  5. Authority/Subversion

These two theories are correlated by The Five Categories.

To demonstrate their correlation we require new tools:  The Five Tasks and The Five Processes.  The human mind uses just five tools to solve problems, each of which manipulates information in a specific way:

The Five Tasks (Five Categories Theory original set (5CO)):

  1. Sense (Adds info)

  2. Explain (Removes info)

  3. Sort (Connects info)

  4. Plan (Creates info)

  5. Act (Implements info)

Any task human minds complete can be divided into micro-tasks of sensing, explaining, sorting, planning, and acting.  The mind does not complete these tasks one at a time in an organized, conscious fashion; it completes millions of them (or more) per second.  It constantly observes surroundings, rationalizes observations, associates related information, creates plans, and issues commands.

The Five Tasks can be translated into five mental processes:

The Five Processes, with definitions (5CO):

  1. Perception intakes information (Sense)

  2. Rationalization discerns truth given imperfect information (Explain)

  3. Association connects & organizes related information (Sort)

  4. Expectation deduces possibilities from patterns of information (Plan)

  5. Motivation responds emotionally to information to inspire action (Act)

We can use these new tools to establish connections to the aforementioned conceptual tools and moral foundations:

The Five Conceptual Tools:  Humans are able to:

  1. Accept concepts (Sense / Add info)

  2. Reject concepts (Explain / Remove info)

  3. Clarify concepts (Sort / Connect info -- sorts information into more specific categories)

  4. Modify concepts (Plan / Create info -- infer new information based on trends)

  5. Reinforce concepts (Act / Implement info -- tells oneself to act)

The Five Moral Foundations:

  1. Sanctity/Degradation (Moralizes Perception -- response to sensory impressions)

  2. Fairness/Cheating (Moralizes Rationalization -- response to reasoning and justification)

  3. Care/Harm (Moralizes Association -- response to in-groups and out-groups)

  4. Loyalty/Betrayal (Moralizes Expectation -- response to fulfillment of expectations)

  5. Authority/Subversion (Moralizes Motivation -- response to command)