CONCEPT (Context-dependent)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 589 ▶ |
| Object type | Epistemology, ontology or semantics |
M. KUBAT comments: “In the real world, concepts are usually not crisp but, rather, tend to change (more or less) their meaning with context” (1992, p.392).
L. THAYER explained this by the existence of what he called “epistemic communities”, each with a specific understanding of every concept, obtained by a (progressively shifting) consensus (1972, p.112). In every community, language use is largely an autopoietic process.
According to W. FRITZ, who bases himself on his experiments with artificial intelligent systems (on a digital computer), experiences leading to positive or negative results are registered by the system and their comparison and accumulation derive in “actuation rules” (i.e. prescriptions about suitable action in specific situations), which are stored for possible subsequent use. These rules can undergo reinforcements, be transformed or forgotten. They are created on different levels: practical motor habits (for instance, riding a bicycle); practical habits with a neuro-mental component (driving a car); linguistic habits, etc… For FRITZ, the most abstract and general rules are those called concepts, because they are a multi-use synthesis of many experiments (pers. comm.).
These ideas are consonant with A. KORZYBSKI's structural differential, a general model of the way we extract abstractions at various levels from observed events.