Concepts
Edited by Daniel Weiskopf (Georgia State University)
About this topic
Summary | Concepts are the basic elements of thought. One of their primary functions is to connect the mind to the world; thus, to have a concept is to have available a way of thinking about something. There are concepts of particular individuals, general categories, natural kinds and artifacts, properties and relations, actions and events, and so forth. Concepts are also used in formulating beliefs, desires, plans, and other complex thoughts and judgments. They therefore play an important role in explaining cognitive processes such as categorization, inductive inference, causal reasoning, and decision making. |
Key works | A collection of influential readings that makes a good starting point in getting acquainted with how theories of concepts have been handled in modern cognitive science is Margolis & Laurence 1999. An overview of the key phenomena that theories of concepts aim to cover, as well as the major theories themselves, can be found in the opening chapters of Prinz 2002. Fodor 1998 presents a critique of the major assumptions lying behind these theories. |
Introductions | General reviews of the subject may be found in Laurence & Margolis 1999 and Weiskopf 2013. |
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Related categories
Subcategories:
See also:
Conceptual Analysis* (330)
Conceptual Change (113)
Conceptual Engineering* (75)
Concept Possession (138)
Ontology of Concepts (36)
Phenomenal Concepts* (244)
Innate Concepts (39)
Mental Files (8)
Concepts, Misc (104)
- Conceptual Analysis and A Priori Entailment (67)
- Phenomenal Concepts (244)
- Inferentialist Accounts of Meaning and Content (338)
- Conceptual and Nonconceptual Content (401)
- Folk Concepts and Folk Intuitions (130)
- Berkeley: Ideas (105 | 75)
- Hume: Ideas (113 | 3)
- Locke: Ideas (196 | 100)
- Spinoza: Ideas (64)
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General Editors:
David Bourget (Western Ontario) David Chalmers (ANU, NYU) Area Editors: David Bourget Gwen Bradford Berit Brogaard Margaret Cameron David Chalmers James Chase Rafael De Clercq Ezio Di Nucci Barry Hallen Hans Halvorson Jonathan Ichikawa Michelle Kosch Øystein Linnebo JeeLoo Liu Paul Livingston Brandon Look Manolo Martínez Matthew McGrath Michiru Nagatsu Susana Nuccetelli Gualtiero Piccinini Giuseppe Primiero Jack Alan Reynolds Darrell P. Rowbottom Aleksandra Samonek Constantine Sandis Howard Sankey Jonathan Schaffer Thomas Senor Robin Smith Daniel Star Jussi Suikkanen Lynne Tirrell Aness Webster Other editors Contact us Learn more about PhilPapers |