The making of human concepts: A final look
The making of human concepts: A final look
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the authors. It argues that there is nothing unique about the distinct components that contribute to the making of human concepts, when these are considered individually. What is unique is their combined presence in a single species. Of particular note is the long developmental period that allows human infants to gradually acquire knowledge of the world and the rich social tapestry in which the child is embedded and that actively tutors the child to acquire species-relevant knowledge. Our current concepts are the outcome of tens of thousands of years of this process and reflect discoveries made at the societal level (such as language, writing, mathematics), each of which incrementally augments the conceptual abilities of successive generations of humans.
Keywords: concepts, learning, evolution, infants, conceptual learning
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
