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Single Idea 12575

[filed under theme 18. Thought / D. Concepts / 3. Ontology of Concepts / b. Concepts as abilities ]

Full Idea

Evans's 'Generality Constraint' says that if a thinker is capable of attitudes to the content Fa and possesses the singular concept b, then he is capable of having attitudes to the content Fb.

Gist of Idea

Concepts have a 'Generality Constraint', that we must know how predicates apply to them

Source

report of Gareth Evans (The Varieties of Reference [1980], 4.3) by Christopher Peacocke - A Study of Concepts 1.1

Book Ref

Peacocke,Christopher: 'A Study of Concepts' [MIT 1999], p.1

A Reaction

So having an attitude becomes the test of whether one possesses a concept. I suppose if one says 'You know you've got a concept when you are capable of thinking about it', that is much the same thing. Sounds fine.

The 18 ideas with the same theme [concepts as abilities to believe, decide and reason]:

14792 A 'conception', the rational implication of a word, lies in its bearing upon the conduct of life [Peirce]
18975 We return to experience with concepts, where they show us differences [James]
12576 Possessing a concept is knowing how to go on [Wittgenstein, by Peacocke]
4157 Concepts direct our interests and investigations, and express those interests [Wittgenstein]
12606 Man learns the concept of the past by remembering [Wittgenstein]
10731 For abstractionists, concepts are capacities to recognise recurrent features of the world [Geach]
7613 Concepts are (at least in part) abilities and not occurrences [Putnam]
12575 Concepts have a 'Generality Constraint', that we must know how predicates apply to them [Evans, by Peacocke]
12614 I prefer psychological atomism - that concepts are independent of epistemic capacities [Fodor]
2471 Are concepts best seen as capacities? [Fodor]
2472 For Pragmatists having a concept means being able to do something [Fodor]
2438 In the information view, concepts are potentials for making distinctions [Fodor]
12626 Cartesians put concept individuation before concept possession [Fodor]
12577 Possessing a concept is being able to make judgements which use it [Peacocke]
12578 A concept is just what it is to possess that concept [Peacocke]
12587 Employing a concept isn't decided by introspection, but by making judgements using it [Peacocke]
11123 Maybe the concept CAT is just the ability to discriminate and infer about cats [Margolis/Laurence]
11125 The abilities view cannot explain the productivity of thought, or mental processes [Margolis/Laurence]