Concept
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Revision as of 08:09, 17 October 2019 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) ← Previous diff |
Revision as of 08:09, 17 October 2019 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) Next diff → |
||
Line 10: | Line 10: | ||
Illustration: The ''[[Map of Tendre]]'' (''Carte du Tendre'')]] | Illustration: The ''[[Map of Tendre]]'' (''Carte du Tendre'')]] | ||
{{Template}} | {{Template}} | ||
- | '''Concepts''' are defined as [[abstract]] [[idea]]s or general [[notion]]s that occur in the [[mind]], in [[speech]], or in [[thought]]. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of [[thought]]s and [[belief]]s. They play an important role in all aspects of [[cognition]]. As such, concepts are studied by several disciplines, such as linguistics, psychology, and philosophy, and these disciplines are interested in the logical and psychological structure of concepts, and how they are put together to form thoughts and sentences. The study of concepts has served as an important flagship of an emerging interdisciplinary approach called cognitive science. | + | '''Concepts''' are defined as [[abstract]] [[idea]]s or general [[notion]]s that occur in the [[mind]], in [[speech]], or in [[thought]]. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of thoughts and [[belief]]s. They play an important role in all aspects of [[cognition]]. As such, concepts are studied by several disciplines, such as linguistics, psychology, and philosophy, and these disciplines are interested in the logical and psychological structure of concepts, and how they are put together to form thoughts and sentences. The study of concepts has served as an important flagship of an emerging interdisciplinary approach called cognitive science. |
In [[contemporary philosophy]], there are at least three prevailing ways to understand what a concept is: | In [[contemporary philosophy]], there are at least three prevailing ways to understand what a concept is: |
Revision as of 08:09, 17 October 2019
"In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art." – Sol LeWitt, "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art", Artforum, June 1967. |
Related e |
Featured: |
Concepts are defined as abstract ideas or general notions that occur in the mind, in speech, or in thought. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of thoughts and beliefs. They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied by several disciplines, such as linguistics, psychology, and philosophy, and these disciplines are interested in the logical and psychological structure of concepts, and how they are put together to form thoughts and sentences. The study of concepts has served as an important flagship of an emerging interdisciplinary approach called cognitive science.
In contemporary philosophy, there are at least three prevailing ways to understand what a concept is:
- Concepts as mental representations, where concepts are entities that exist in the mind (mental objects)
- Concepts as abilities, where concepts are abilities peculiar to cognitive agents (mental states)
- Concepts as Fregean senses (see sense and reference), where concepts are abstract objects, as opposed to mental objects and mental states
Concepts can be organized into a hierarchy, higher levels of which are termed "superordinate" and lower levels termed "subordinate". Additionally, there is the "basic" or "middle" level at which people will most readily categorize a concept. For example, a basic-level concept would be "chair", with its superordinate, "furniture", and its subordinate, "easy chair".
A concept is instantiated (reified) by all of its actual or potential instances, whether these are things in the real world or other ideas.
Concepts are studied as components of human cognition in the cognitive science disciplines of linguistics, psychology and, philosophy, where an ongoing debate asks whether all cognition must occur through concepts. Concepts are used as formal tools or models in mathematics, computer science, databases and artificial intelligence.
In informal use the word concept often just means any idea.
See also
- Abstraction
- Categorization
- Class (philosophy)
- Notion (philosophy)
- Concept and object
- Concept car
- Concept map
- Conceptual art
- Conceptual blending
- Conceptual history
- Conceptual metaphor
- Conceptualism
- Definitionism
- Essentially contested concept
- Formal concept analysis
- Fuzzy concept
- Hypostatic abstraction
- List of philosophical concepts
- Idea
- Meme
- Misconception
- Object (philosophy)
- Philosophy
- Schema (Kant)
- Social construction
- Symbol grounding problem
- Thick concept