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Full Idea
Before language is present, concepts depend on the brain's ability to construct 'universals' through higher-order mapping of the activity of the brain's own perceptual and motor maps.
Gist of Idea
Prior to language, concepts are universals created by self-mapping of brain activity
Source
G Edelman / G Tononi (Consciousness: matter becomes imagination [2000], Ch.15)
Book Ref
Edelman,G/Tononi,G: 'Consciousness: how matter becomes imagination' [Penguin 2000], p.196
A Reaction
It should be of great interest to philosophers that one can begin to give a neuro-physiological account of universals. A physical system can be ordered as a database, and universals are the higher branches of a tree-structure of information.
15035 | If universals are not separate, we can isolate them by abstraction [Boethius, by Panaccio] |
22132 | Species and genera are individual concepts which naturally signify many individuals [William of Ockham] |
23651 | Universals are not objects of sense and cannot be imagined - but can be conceived [Reid] |
5408 | If we identify whiteness with a thought, we can never think of it twice; whiteness is the object of a thought [Russell] |
18715 | Using 'green' is a commitment to future usage of 'green' [Wittgenstein] |
5312 | A child first sees objects as distinct, and later as members of groups [Wilson,EO] |
4938 | Prior to language, concepts are universals created by self-mapping of brain activity [Edelman/Tononi] |