PSYCH 3312 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Family Resemblance, Bird Feeder
17 Feb 2018
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Document Summary
Development of concepts: developmental shift from surface to essential features. Each theory has difficulty explaining some aspect of concept formation. Prototypes and exemplars both rely on similarity for categorization. But -- sometimes, surface similarity is less important than other factors in categorization. Essence is the very being of anything, whereby it is what it is. And thus the real internal, but generally unknown constitution of things, whereon their discoverable qualities depend, may be called their essence . Metaphysical essentialism: a philosophical position concerning objective reality. Its central claim is that (at least some) things really do have essences. Psychological essentialism: address how ppl construe (or represent) reality in their belief systems, language, and cultural perspective. Central claim is that (most) ppl believe (some) things have essences. A category essence is known and contributes to the meaning and use of the category label. Ex) the essence of water is h2o.
