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Eliminating the “concept” concept

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 June 2010

Stevan Harnad
Stevan Harnad
Affiliation:
Institut des Sciences Cognitives, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, Canada, H3C 3P8; School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ Southampton, United Kingdom. [email protected]://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad
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Abstract

Machery suggests that the concept of “concept” is too heterogeneous to serve as a “natural kind” for scientific explanation, so cognitive science should do without concepts. I second the suggestion and propose substituting, in place of concepts, inborn and acquired sensorimotor category-detectors and category-names combined into propositions that define and describe further categories.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 33 , Issue 2-3 , June 2010 , pp. 213 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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