Where do Concepts Come From?

Authors

  • Joanna Komorowska-Mach Institute of Philosophy, University of Warsaw

Keywords:

concepts, core cognition, bootstrapping, cognitive development

Abstract

The review discusses the book The Origin of Concepts by Susan Carey, in which she presents three main theses — the innateness of some kind of conceptual representations, the presence of a qualitative change during conceptual development and the existence of a special learning mechanism that achieves that discontinuity called bootstrapping. The general reception of the work is positive. Minor doubts are presented regarding two claims: first, the speculation about the iconic format of core cognition representations, which seems to be underdeveloped and slightly unclear, second, the claim that core cognition representations are innate, which seems to be insufficiently supported by empirical data presented.

Published

2011-12-01

How to Cite

Komorowska-Mach, J. (2011). Where do Concepts Come From?. The Philosophy of Science, 19(4), 139–145. Retrieved from https://fn.uw.edu.pl/index.php/fn/article/view/664