The Origin of Concepts
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Only human beings have a rich conceptual repertoire with concepts like tort, entropy, Abelian group, mannerism, icon and deconstruction. How have humans constructed these concepts? And once they have been constructed by adults, how do children acquire them? While primarily focusing on the second question, in The Origin of Concepts, Susan Carey shows that the answers to both overlap substantially.Carey begins by characterizing the innate starting point for conceptual development, namely systems of core cognition. Representations of core cognition are the output of dedicated input analyzers, as with perceptual representations, but these core representations differ from perceptual representations in having more abstract contents and richer functional roles. Carey argues that the key to understanding cognitive development lies in recognizing conceptual discontinuities in which new representational systems emerge that have more expressive power than core cognition and are also incommensurate with core cognition and other earlier representational systems. Finally, Carey fleshes out Quinian bootstrapping, a learning mechanism that has been repeatedly sketched in the literature on the history and philosophy of science. She demonstrates that Quinian bootstrapping is a major mechanism in the construction of new representational resources over the course of childrens cognitive development.
Carey shows how developmental cognitive science resolves aspects of long-standing philosophical debates about the existence, nature, content, and format of innate knowledge. She also shows that understanding the processes of conceptual development in children illuminates the historical process by which concepts are constructed, and transforms the way we think about philosophical problems about the nature of concepts and the relations between language and thought.
Reviews
Shorlisted for the 2010 Eleanor Maccoby Book Award as awarded by APA.
"Carey gives a brilliant and far-ranging account of concepts and conceptual change, from the earliest concepts of infants to knowledge of mind, number, and the physical world. The book would be worth owning if only for its clear, detailed summaries of research in a wide range of domains, but what really sets it apart is the power of its theorizing...Although some of Carey's claims are controversial, no one interested in the nature of human cognition can fail to find this book fascinating."--Dedre Gentner, Director, Cognitive Science Program and Professor, Department of Psychology and School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University
"Questions about the origin and nature of concepts are among the most central and challenging in all of cognitive science. Carey does an extraordinary job of addressing these questions through a highly original and thoughtful combination of theory and evidence. This book fluidly and fluently weaves together ideas across the disciplines of psychology, philosophy, linguistics and comparative cognition in ways that provide a remarkably comprehensive and coherent account of how concepts emerge, change, and interact over the course of development. The Origins of Concepts will become essential reading for anyone interested in a truly cognitive science approach to concepts, intuitive theories and cognitive development."--Frank C. Keil, Professor of Psychology and Linguistics, Yale University
"The Origin of Concepts by Susan Carey, one of the world's foremost experts in cognitive development, is a stunning accomplishment. Professor Carey's deep analysis brings coherence to an astonishingly broad range of human intellectual achievements including language acquisition, mathematical abilities, and reasoning about the physical world. Carey deftly weaves a unified theoretical framework from classic philosophical debates and state-of-the-art empirical techniques in psychology. This remarkable book will be required reading for anyone interested in cognition, cognitive development, and cognitive science."--Ellen M. Markman, Lewis M. Terman Professor of Psychology, Stanford University
"An extraordinary scientific achievement. Not since Piaget have we seen such a combination of theoretical scope and detailed analysis of children's behavior. With new experimental techniques and results, Susan Carey has progressed beyond earlier attempts, developing a complete proposal for how children's knowledge can progress from simpler to qualitatively more complex forms. She resists the temptation of putting all the knowledge into innate modules or an overly powerful learning mechanism and instead works out the detailed interactions between innate perceptual mechanisms, learning, and instruction. I think this book will come to be seen as a turning point in the field of cognitive development."--Gregory L. Murphy, Professor of Psychology, New York University
"In The Origin of Concepts, Susan Carey explains how humans create new concepts during cognitive development. As the basis of her argument she draws on a wealth of empirical research to establish the nature of 'core cognition' (what's innate) and of significant discontinuities that mark conceptual change in childhood. In tackling the fundamental problem of the nature of the learning mechanisms that enable such change, Carey establishes that children bootstrap their way to novel conceptual representations in a manner akin to that used by scientists in creating concepts. Beyond making a major contribution to cognitive psychology, the book's sustained and penetrating critique of Jerry Fodor's argument for 'where cognitive science went wrong', and its implications for a theory of concepts make it essential reading for a wide range of philosophers."--Nancy J. Nersessian, Regents' Professor of Cognitive Science, Georgia Institute of Technology
"For more than two decades, Susan Carey has produced a series of striking findings, each in itself a bold step toward uncovering the origin of concepts in the human mind. Drawing insight from fundamental issues in the philosophy of mind and embracing state-of-the-art techniques in infancy research, Carey has illuminated some of the human infant's most impressive capacities, but has also uncovered some startling difficulties. In this volume, Carey draws together these findings, framing them in such a way as to touch on the deepest philosophical issues within the cognitive sciences. This book represents the most complete statement of her bold and provocative ideas, and will serve as source of ideas for decades to come." --Sandra R. Waxman, Professor of Psychology, Northwestern University
"This important book presents an extensive study of how we come to have concepts--the essential building blocks of thought. In laying out the basic problems, Carey takes us on a fascinating trip covering relevant findings in neuroscience, animal intelligence, developmental psychology and philosophy, all of which she visits with penetrating clarity and an engaging style. Not since Piaget has there been such a breadth of scholarship focused on cognitive development, all the more important because these fresh ideas carry implications for every facet of contemporary cognitive science. While I don't agree with all of Carey's claims, I cannot help being impressed by the depth and breadth of Carey's experimental and analytical scholarship."--Zenon Pylyshyn, Board of Governors Professor of Cognitive Science and Founding Director of the Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University
"Without a doubt, The Origin of Concepts is dense; however, it is clearly and carefully written. This is a must read for researchers conducting research on cognitive development. Regardless of a researcher's specific niche, the book will have something of interest to offer, as it touches on a wide variety of topics relevant to development. For those new to the topic of development, such as the beginning graduate student, the book is a worthwhile purchase...In sum, The Origin of Concepts will be received warmly by researchers in development. It is destined to be the focus of many graduate-level seminars and to provide inspiration for many future research projects."--PsycCRITIQUES
"The book is an excellent discussion of a wide range of views touching these subjects...This volume is a fascinating tour of the human mind...For philosophers, it provides a new foundation for the discussion of just what a concept is, a question that Carey herself engages at length in her closing chapter." --Computing Reviews
