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Full Idea
I don't know how concepts are acquired. Nor do you. Nor does anybody else.
Gist of Idea
Nobody knows how concepts are acquired
Source
Jerry A. Fodor (LOT 2 [2008], Ch.5.4)
Book Ref
Fodor,Jerry A.: 'LOT 2: the Language of Thought Revisited' [OUP 2008], p.146
A Reaction
This comes in the context of quietly modifying his earlier claim that concepts weren't acquired, because they were largely innate. Presumably we are allowed to have theories of concept acquisition? I quite like abstractionism.
| 19372 | Concepts are ordered, and show eternal possibilities, deriving from God [Leibniz, by Arthur,R] |
| 16912 | Some concepts can be made a priori, which are general thoughts of objects, like quantity or cause [Kant] |
| 24129 | We start with images, then words, and then concepts, to which emotions attach [Nietzsche] |
| 23187 | Whatever their origin, concepts survive by being useful [Nietzsche] |
| 19633 | We use concepts to master our fears; saying 'death' releases us from confronting it [Cioran] |
| 10645 | We reach concepts by clarification, or by definition, or by habitual experience [Price,HH] |
| 8781 | The mind does not lift concepts from experience; it creates them, and then applies them [Geach] |
| 11859 | The mind conceptualizes objects; yet objects impinge upon the mind [Wiggins] |
| 12658 | Nobody knows how concepts are acquired [Fodor] |
| 17722 | The concept 'red' is tied to what actually individuates red things [Peacocke] |
| 5793 | Concepts and generalisations result from brain 'global mapping' by 'reentry' [Edelman/Tononi, by Searle] |
| 4926 | Concepts arise when the brain maps its own activities [Edelman/Tononi] |