more on this theme | more from this thinker
Full Idea
Concepts are language.
Gist of Idea
Concepts are language
Source
Willard Quine (Identity, Ostension, and Hypostasis [1950], 5)
Book Ref
Quine,Willard: 'From a Logical Point of View' [Harper and Row 1963], p.79
A Reaction
Hm. This seems to mean that animals and pre-linguistic children have no concepts. I just don't believe that.
| 17595 | To unite a sequence of ostensions to make one object, a prior concept of identity is needed [Quine] |
| 11092 | A river is a process, with stages; if we consider it as one thing, we are considering a process [Quine] |
| 11093 | We don't say 'red' is abstract, unlike a river, just because it has discontinuous shape [Quine] |
| 11095 | We should just identify any items which are indiscernible within a given discourse [Quine] |
| 11096 | Discourse generally departmentalizes itself to some degree [Quine] |
| 11094 | 'Red' is a single concrete object in space-time; 'red' and 'drop' are parts of a red drop [Quine] |
| 11097 | Red is the largest red thing in the universe [Quine] |
| 11101 | General terms don't commit us ontologically, but singular terms with substitution do [Quine] |
| 11099 | Understanding 'is square' is knowing when to apply it, not knowing some object [Quine] |
| 11103 | We aren't stuck with our native conceptual scheme; we can gradually change it [Quine] |
| 11104 | Concepts are language [Quine] |
| 11102 | Apply '-ness' or 'class of' to abstract general terms, to get second-level abstract singular terms [Quine] |