LIN247H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Organic Compound, Deferent And Epicycle
Document Summary
You can"t build a theory on concept, if you don"t really know what it is - says kempson"s critique. Words are just tools for us; sometimes there"s a relationship - this is noam chomsky"s argument. Ex: gold - we can talk about gold, because we have the same expression, but different mental representation. A concept is basically trying to come up with a definition that will work and be understood by everybody. If we talk about birds, we might put specific conditions to it (i. e. it flies), then it narrows it down. Concept, thus, needs to have necessary and sufficient conditions. We can understand that a turkey is a bird and same as a flamingo, even if it doesn"t look like the prototype. The referential approach assumes a one-to-one correspondence between the expression and referent (but there isn"t one) Example #1: "toy" - the ability to be played with; shared; plastic; bright colors; small; miniature versions of real life objects.
