A strategy for categorizing ideas?

Lately I've been struggling with the various ways I can organize and categorize ideas- a couple solutions stand out as useful (from ideology to idealism, etymologies, usages, etc.) but I think I may have found the answer I've been really looking for:

Perhaps the words I'm looking for are "discursive" and "recursive" as in "discursive ideas" and "recursive ideas"-

Discursive ideas depend on language and the concept of an idea, they jump around chaotically, leaving marks across the mental spectrum, whereas recursive ideas are constantly kept in check by their own content.

This may solve the question of categorization, but I still have a number of barriers to get over before I can properly illustrate and visualize ideas. However there's forward movement on all fronts; one of the ways I could visualize an idea is as an "atom-" making the proton (the central, huge mass) "concepts" and the electrons (the perhaps mass-less tiny orbitals that decide the chemical properties of an atom) "theories"- this is one strategy among many.

Now I need to begin making the system I've designed operate properly; I've already begun putting ideas into the tumblr (natureofideas.tumblr.com) but now I need to start organizing them and picking out larger concepts I can follow. Next I'll need to look at the relationship between concepts and theories and figure out where exactly they fit in the spectrum of ideas.