Dynamic Conceptual Semantics: A Logico-Philosophical Investigation into Concept Formation and Understanding (Studies in Logic, Language, and Information) - Softcover

Bartsch, Renate

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1575861240 ISBN 13: 9781575861241

Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Inf, 1998

Synopsis

Presented in this book is a theory of concept formation and understanding that does not make use of a notion of an innate mental language as a means of concept representation. Instead, experimental concepts are treated semantically as stabilising structuring of growing sets of data, which are sets of experienced satisfaction situations for expressions, and theoretical concepts are based on coherent sets of general sentences held true. There are two kinds of structures to be established: general concepts by means of similarity sets under perspectives and historical concepts. This gives rise to a theory of understanding new situations and expressions by integrating new data into established sets of data salva stability, or by extending the conceptual structure in a metaphorical or metonymical way. The theory provides a way to understand what identity between propositional attitudes amounts to, especially how people can have more or less the same belief.

About this title

Book Description

Presented in this book is a theory of concept formation and understanding that treats experimental concepts semantically as stabilising structuring of growing sets of data. A theory of understanding new situations and expressions by integrating new data into established sets of data salva stability, or by extending the conceptual structure in a metaphorical or metonymical way is discussed.

Review

"The rigour of Bartsch's approach has a lot to commend itself to anyone interested in basing a cognitive theory of language use on an explicit and psychologically plausible account of concepts and concept formation." Notes on Linguistics

Edition details

• Publisher: Center for the Study of Language and Inf
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1575861240
• ISBN 13: 9781575861241
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 296