Just wondering what category does the fig fall into?  Or does it have its own special classification?

It is a flower that by some is considered a fruit.

It's a flower, or actually a cluster of flowers.  They're internal inside what you think of as the fruit.  Technically it's called a synconium.  On common figs, they're clusters of female flowers.  Check out the California Rare Fruit Growers web site for some other interesting info -- http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/fig.html    (I'm pretty sure Jon has that site linked from various points on this f4f site too).

Mike   central NY state, zone 5a

it seems that word.. "syconium" is based on ancient greek "sykon" meaning 'fig". wow.. a word made up just for the fig. edible flower that taste really good without salad dressing. not that i tried to eat too many flowers.

The outer covering ("skin") is called a synconium. On the inside of the synconium are hundreds of flowers, which each produce a fruit (one per flower), just like peaches, oranges, etc. have one fruit per flower. We typically call the synconium that is full of fruitS, a "fruit", but botanically, it is not the same. We wouldn't call a cluster of grapes "a" fruit - we would recognize it as a group of fruits. Same for bananas. With figs, that "Cluster" or "Bunch" comes neatly packaged in a synconium.