PS260 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Wags, Prototype Theory
Document Summary
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. 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. And that a creature without these features is unlikely to be a dog.
