Meaning, Thought, & Reality

Meaning, Thought, & Reality

1. Bring with them:

   • Mental Representations or concepts: something that is in our minds to represent something even physical or not in the world.
     • We acquire them by:
       • Ostensive Definition.
         • That is:
           • The idea of humans being exposed to examples in the world.
             • For instance:
               • If you are with a child and you see a DOG, then you point to it and say: "that is a dog"; then you stimulate in him/her the mental representation and the concept of what a dog is.
     • What derives:
       • The Necessary and sufficient conditions.
         • That is:
           • A theory that consider concepts as a list of characteristics or attributes used as necessary or sufficient conditions for something to be and example of a concept.
     • With the proposal of
       • Prototypes.
         • That is:
           • A theory that consider concepts as typical members of a category.
             • As an example:
               • *Chair* is a more central member of the category FURNITURES than *lamp*
     • Also Related by
       • Conceptual hierarchies.
         • Two models based on:
           • Defining Attributes
             • What says that concepts are presented by nodes in a network
               • For example:
                 • CANARY inherits the attributes of BIRD and ANIMAL amd thus, inherits the attributes breathes, eats, has skin, can fly...
           • Three levels of generality
             • That are: superordinate level, basic level, and subordinate level
               • For example:
                 • In FURNITURE, the superordinate level is FURNITURE; the basic level would include concepts like CHAIR, and the subordinate level would include concepts like ARMCHAIR, DINING CHAIR.
     • In addition
       • Neuroscience
         • Suggests that words activate different regions where our brain stores words related to each other, taking into account that different people's brains have very similar places to store specific vocabulary thanks to grouping by meaning shown in the map of the semantic system of the barin.
   • Linguistic Relativity:
     • Suggests that our own language predisposes us to see both, reality and another language through its own filter.
   • The language of thought hypothesis
     • Suggests that thinking and speaking involve distinct levels of representation.