Editing Concept (section)

{{short description|Mental representation or an abstract object}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:Generalization process using trees.svg|thumb|right|alt=Diagram|A representation of the concept of a tree. The four upper images of trees can be roughly quantified into an overall generalization of the idea of a tree, pictured in the lower image.]]
A '''concept''' is an [[abstraction|abstract]] idea that serves as a foundation for more [[abstract and concrete|concrete]] principles, [[thought]]s, and [[belief]]s.<ref>{{Cite book|doi = 10.1007/11524564_4|chapter = What is a Concept?|title = Conceptual Structures: Common Semantics for Sharing Knowledge|series = Lecture Notes in Computer Science|year = 2005|last1 = Goguen|first1 = Joseph|volume = 3596|pages = 52–77|isbn = 978-3-540-27783-5}}</ref>
Concepts play an important role in all aspects of [[cognition]].<ref>Chapter 1 of Laurence and Margolis' book called Concepts: Core Readings. {{ISBN|9780262631938}}</ref><ref>Carey, S. (1991). Knowledge Acquisition: Enrichment or Conceptual Change? In S. Carey and R. Gelman (Eds.), ''The Epigenesis of Mind: Essays on Biology and Cognition'' (pp. 257–291). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.</ref> As such, concepts are studied within such disciplines as linguistics, psychology, and philosophy, and these disciplines are interested in the logical and psychological structure of concepts, and how they are put together to form thoughts and sentences. The study of concepts has served as an important flagship of an emerging interdisciplinary approach, cognitive science.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bcs.mit.edu/research/cognitive-science|title=Cognitive Science &#124; Brain and Cognitive Sciences|access-date=2019-07-08|archive-date=2021-06-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210618025411/https://bcs.mit.edu/research/cognitive-science|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In [[contemporary philosophy]], three understandings of a concept prevail:<ref name="Stanford Encycl">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Concepts|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/concepts/|encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab at Stanford University|access-date=6 November 2012|author=Eric Margolis|author2=Stephen Lawrence}}</ref>
* [[mental representation]]s, such that a concept is an entity that exists in the mind (a mental object)
* [[abilities]] peculiar to cognitive agents (mental states)
* [[Sense and reference#Sense|Fregean senses]], [[abstract objects]] rather than a mental object or a mental state

Concepts are classified into a hierarchy, higher levels of which are termed "superordinate" and lower levels termed "subordinate". Additionally, there is the "basic" or "middle" level at which people will most readily categorize a concept.<ref>Eysenck. M. W., (2012) Fundamentals of Cognition (2nd) Psychology Taylor & Francis.</ref> For example, a basic-level concept would be "chair", with its superordinate, "furniture", and its subordinate, "easy chair".

Concepts may be exact or inexact.<ref>[[Joseph Goguen]] ""The logic of inexact concepts", [[Synthese]] 19 (3/4): 325–373 (1969).</ref> When the mind makes a generalization such as the concept of ''tree'', it extracts similarities from numerous examples; the simplification enables [[Hierarchy (thinking)|higher-level thinking]]. A concept is [[wikt:instantiate#Verb|instantiated (reified)]] by all of its actual or potential instances, whether these are things in the real world or other [[idea]]s.

Concepts are studied as components of human cognition in the [[cognitive science]] disciplines of [[linguistics]], [[psychology]], and [[philosophy]], where an ongoing debate asks whether all cognition must occur through concepts. Concepts are regularly [[Formal system|formalized]] in [[mathematics]], [[computer science]], [[databases]] and [[artificial intelligence]]. Examples of specific high-level conceptual classes in these fields include [[class (set theory)|classes]], [[database schema|schema]] or [[category (mathematics)|categories]]. In informal use, the word ''concept'' can refer to any [[idea]].