The Origin of Concepts (Oxford Series in Cognitive Development) - Hardcover

Carey, Susan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195367634 ISBN 13: 9780195367638

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2009

Synopsis

Only human beings have a rich conceptual repertoire with concepts like tort, entropy, Abelian group, mannerism, icon and deconstruction. How have humans constructed these concepts? And once they have been constructed by adults, how do children acquire them? While primarily focusing on the second question, in The Origin of Concepts , Susan Carey shows that the answers to both overlap substantially.

Carey begins by characterizing the innate starting point for conceptual development, namely systems of core cognition. Representations of core cognition are the output of dedicated input analyzers, as with perceptual representations, but these core representations differ from perceptual representations in having more abstract contents and richer functional roles. Carey argues that the key to understanding cognitive development lies in recognizing conceptual discontinuities in which new representational systems emerge that have more expressive power than core cognition and are also incommensurate with core cognition and other earlier representational systems. Finally, Carey fleshes out Quinian bootstrapping, a learning mechanism that has been repeatedly sketched in the literature on the history and philosophy of science. She demonstrates that Quinian bootstrapping is a major mechanism in the construction of new representational resources over the course of childrens cognitive development.

Carey shows how developmental cognitive science resolves aspects of long-standing philosophical debates about the existence, nature, content, and format of innate knowledge. She also shows that understanding the processes of conceptual development in children illuminates the historical process by which concepts are constructed, and transforms the way we think about philosophical problems about the nature of concepts and the relations between language and thought.

About this title

About the Author:

Susan Carey is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. She is a renowned expert on conceptual development and is known for introducing the concept of fast mapping, whereby children learn the meanings of words after a single exposure, and for integrating work on conceptual change in the history of science with work on conceptual change in childhood.

Review:

Shorlisted for the 2010 Eleanor Maccoby Book Award as awarded by APA.

"Carey gives a brilliant and far-ranging account of concepts and conceptual change, from the earliest concepts of infants to knowledge of mind, number, and the physical world. The book would be worth owning if only for its clear, detailed summaries of research in a wide range of domains, but what really sets it apart is the power of its theorizing...Although some of Carey's claims are controversial, no one interested in the nature of human cognition can fail to find this book fascinating."--Dedre Gentner, Director, Cognitive Science Program and Professor, Department of Psychology and School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University

"Questions about the origin and nature of concepts are among the most central and challenging in all of cognitive science. Carey does an extraordinary job of addressing these questions through a highly original and thoughtful combination of theory and evidence. This book fluidly and fluently weaves together ideas across the disciplines of psychology, philosophy, linguistics and comparative cognition in ways that provide a remarkably comprehensive and coherent account of how concepts emerge, change, and interact over the course of development. The Origins of Concepts will become essential reading for anyone interested in a truly cognitive science approach to concepts, intuitive theories and cognitive development."--Frank C. Keil, Professor of Psychology and Linguistics, Yale University

"The Origin of Concepts by Susan Carey, one of the world's foremost experts in cognitive development, is a stunning accomplishment. Professor Carey's deep analysis brings coherence to an astonishingly broad range of human intellectual achievements including language acquisition, mathematical abilities, and reasoning about the physical world. Carey deftly weaves a unified theoretical framework from classic philosophical debates and state-of

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0195367634
• ISBN 13: 9780195367638
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 608