Psychology Dictionary of Arguments

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Categories: categories are basic concepts for classifying the objects of a knowledge domain into different groups or hierarchies. In philosophy, the category systems of different authors can differ considerably. Concepts which are not suitable for classifying are transcendentals, e.g. the concept of similarity. However, these concepts are again applicable to categorized objects.
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Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

Steven Pinker on Categories - Dictionary of Arguments

I 381
Categories/PinkerVsTradition: Urge to classify not because the memory is limited.
Tradition: without order chaos would reign.
>Classification
, >Order, >Memory, >Information processing.
PinkerVs: Organization is pointless for its own sake.
Solution: Only with categories it is possible to draw conclusions (inferences) - most categories are in the middle: E.g. "rabbit", not "cottontail" or "mammal".
I 386
George Lakoff (linguist) VsCategories: there are no clear, pure fictions, they must be abolished - PinkerVsLakoff: rules are just idealizations.
>George Lakoff.
I 386
Categories/Gould: it is a mistake, to force extinct animals into categories.
Pinker: difficult is the classification on the stump where a branch was cut off.
>Idealization.
I 402f
Categories/Folk Psychology/Pinker: Vs is assumed to be essentialist: taxonomies all over the world look similar to the tree structure of Linné.
>Structures, >Classification.
I 404
But there is no age in which children are essentialists with respect to artifacts: E.g. a coffeepot turned into a birdhouse is referred to by everyone as a birdhouse.
>Artifacts, >Essentialism, >Folk psychology.

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Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments
The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.

Pi I
St. Pinker
How the Mind Works, New York 1997
German Edition:
Wie das Denken im Kopf entsteht München 1998


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