Ideas of Susan A. Gelman, by Theme
[American, fl. 2003, Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan.]
green numbers give full details |
back to list of philosophers |
expand these ideas
7. Existence / E. Categories / 2. Categorisation
|
15682
|
Even fairly simple animals make judgements based on categories
|
|
15691
|
Children accept real stable categories, with nonobvious potential that gives causal explanations
|
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 1. Essences of Objects
|
15700
|
In India, upper-castes essentialize caste more than lower-castes do
|
|
15685
|
Essentialism is either natural to us, or an accident of our culture, or a necessary result of language
|
|
15684
|
Children's concepts include nonobvious features, like internal parts, functions and causes
|
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 2. Types of Essence
|
15681
|
Essentialism: real or representational? sortal, causal or ideal? real particulars, or placeholders?
|
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 5. Essence as Kind
|
15678
|
Essentialism says categories have a true hidden nature which gives an object its identity
|
|
15683
|
Sortals are needed for determining essence - the thing must be categorised first
|
|
15697
|
Kind (unlike individual) essentialism assumes preexisting natural categories
|
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 7. Essence and Necessity / c. Essentials are necessary
|
15687
|
Kinship is essence that comes in degrees, and age groups are essences that change over time
|
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 14. Knowledge of Essences
|
15679
|
Essentialism comes from the cognitive need to categorise
|
|
15698
|
We found no evidence that mothers teach essentialism to their children
|
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 15. Against Essentialism
|
15709
|
Essentialism is useful for predictions, but it is not the actual structure of reality
|
9. Objects / E. Objects over Time / 12. Origin as Essential
|
15696
|
Peope favor historical paths over outward properties when determining what something is
|
11. Knowledge Aims / A. Knowledge / 2. Understanding
|
15707
|
There is intentional, mechanical, teleological, essentialist, vitalist and deontological understanding
|
12. Knowledge Sources / E. Direct Knowledge / 4. Memory
|
15703
|
Memories often conform to a theory, rather than being neutral
|
14. Science / C. Induction / 1. Induction
|
15708
|
Inductive success is rewarded with more induction
|
14. Science / C. Induction / 3. Limits of Induction
|
15694
|
Children overestimate the power of a single example
|
|
15695
|
Children make errors in induction by focusing too much on categories
|
14. Science / D. Explanation / 1. Explanation / a. Explanation
|
15692
|
People tend to be satisfied with shallow explanations
|
18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 4. Folk Psychology
|
15680
|
Folk essentialism rests on belief in natural kinds, in hidden properties, and on words indicating structures
|
18. Thought / D. Concepts / 3. Ontology of Concepts / a. Concepts as representations
|
15686
|
Labels may indicate categories which embody an essence
|
18. Thought / D. Concepts / 4. Structure of Concepts / a. Conceptual structure
|
15690
|
Causal properties are seen as more central to category concepts
|
18. Thought / D. Concepts / 4. Structure of Concepts / d. Concepts as prototypes
|
15688
|
Categories are characterized by distance from a prototype
|
18. Thought / D. Concepts / 4. Structure of Concepts / f. Theory theory of concepts
|
15689
|
Theory-based concepts use rich models to show which similarities really matter
|
18. Thought / D. Concepts / 5. Concepts and Language / c. Concepts without language
|
15699
|
Prelinguistic infants acquire and use many categories
|
26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 3. Knowing Kinds
|
15693
|
One sample of gold is enough, but one tree doesn't give the height of trees
|
26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 5. Reference to Natural Kinds
|
15701
|
Nouns seem to invoke stable kinds more than predicates do
|
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / a. Scientific essentialism
|
15702
|
Essentialism doesn't mean we know the essences
|
|
15705
|
Essentialism encourages us to think about the world scientifically
|
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / d. Knowing essences
|
15704
|
Essentialism starts from richly structured categories, leading to a search for underlying properties
|
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / e. Anti scientific essentialism
|
15706
|
A major objection to real essences is the essentialising of social categories like race, caste and occupation
|