PSYC 2650 Lecture Notes - Prototype Theory, Wags, Eleanor Rosch
19 Mar 2013
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Ordinary concepts like these are the building blocks out of which all knowledge is created. As we"ll see, describing even a simple concept is more difficult than one might guess. One possibility is that our concept of a dog is a definition. A dog might be defined as a mammal with four legs that barks and wags it tail. For any definition, we can always find such exceptions. Philosopher ludwig wittgenstein (1953) developed the problem of how to define game . For any set of definitive features, we can think of exceptions that are still considered games. Wittgenstein proposed that members of a category have a family resemblance to each other. Dark hair, glasses, a mustache, and a big nose are typical for this family but do not define the family. Returning to the dog example, this is similar to saying that a dog probably has four legs, probably barks, and probably wags its tail.
