Some Problems in the Psychological Approaches to Knowledge

Without knowledge, no one could live his life. Without concepts, our life would be chaotic. If we perceived each entity as unique, we would be overwhelmed by the sheer diversity of what we experience. Fortunately, concepts give our world stability. They are critical for perceiving, remembering, talking, and thinking about objects and events in the world. Previous research and theory concerning concepts and knowledge have treated them as a part of the study of concept formation or memory in the field of psychological theory. However, an essentially new field of research and theory concerning them has emerged, supplied by two major trends: I. The study of naturalistic categories (e.g. "mammal," "bird," "sport") particularly as influenced by input from anthropology, philosophy, and developmental psychology; II. The modeling of natural concepts in the field of semantic memory, an area greatly influenced by AI (Artificial Intelligence). This article is a selective review of these newer developments (with the exception of developmental approaches), and is to discuss some limits on what an analysis of object concepts can tell us about how we may think and understand, and also to dispute what to do next in terms of educational approaches