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Concepts and Thinking

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the application of the theoretical concept of the recently deceased American psychologist Susan Carey. Carey was devoted to the study of the development of cognitive functions in early and school-age children, as well as the cognitive processes that make scientific knowledge possible. The theory is part of the conceptual apparatus used by the quoted author. It is based on the assumption that children, as they develop cognitively, form theories about how the world works and, to some extent, test them in a similar way to scientific theories. One of the most important results of her research is what we now know about the origin of concepts. According to her, concepts are not just aggregate ideas about a particular class of entities, events, relations, etc., as is usually claimed. They are tools and as such make knowledge possible. Understanding concepts in Susan Carey's terms makes it possible, among other things, to understand how it is that some people persist in beliefs that are obviously contrary to reality for others, such as the belief in a flat earth. The concept also has interesting methodological implications. Aristotelian logic, as it was practically developed until the end of the nineteenth century, was understood as the rules of right thinking. As such, it included psychological and ethical questions. The conception described here precisely develops the psychological component of the former logic. The final section of the paper then proposes hypotheses on which to base the study of adults, including those who hold some extreme views.

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