How DOORKNOB Gets Its Meaning

Abstract

Jerry Fodor’s (1998) Concepts: Where Cognitive Science Went Wrong (hereafter referred to as Concepts) and Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star’s (1999) Sorting Things Out: Classification and its Consequences (hereafter referred to as Sorting) represent orthogonal views of concepts and categories stemming from two very different philosophical traditions. Fodor focuses on theories of concepts, whereas Bowker and Star discuss what categories and classification systems are. For Fodor, concepts are mental particulars that apply to things in the world (p. 23). According to Bowker and Star,“classifications are both conceptual (in the sense of persistent patterns of change and action, resources for organizing abstractions) and material (in the sense of being inscribed, transported, and affixed to staff)”(p. 289).

Keywords Cognitive Science, Concepts, Mental Representation, Philosophy Of Mind, Conceptual Analysis.