PS260 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Prototype Theory, Motor Cortex, Artificial Neural Network
Document Summary
You need concepts in order to have knowledge. Knowing what a dog is can be linked to something like a dictionary definition that you know, and this definition can be used as a checklist to determine whether something is a dog or not. However, wittgenstein argues that simple terms don"t actually have definitions; any definition we may know always has some sort exceptions. Instead, he states that members of a category have a family resemblance: no defining features but features that, depending on which subgroup is being looked at, are common in the various members of that family. Picture the ideal family member that has all of the common characteristics of the family and compare them to the other members; members of the family will have common characteristics to the ideal member. Prototype theory: the best way to identify a category is to specify the center of the category rather than its boundaries.
