Talk:Concept

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Concept is currently a Culture, sociology and psychology good article nominee. Nominated by Phlsph7 (talk) at 16:50, 4 April 2026 (UTC)

An editor has indicated a willingness to review this article in accordance with the good article criteria and will decide whether or not to list it as a good article. Comments are welcome from any editor. When complete, this review will be closed by the reviewer. To view the review and add comments, click discuss review.

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GA review

Latest comment: 8 hours ago16 comments2 people in discussion

This review is transcluded from Talk:Concept/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Phlsph7 (talk · contribs) 16:50, 4 April 2026 (UTC)Reply

Reviewer: It is a wonderful world (talk · contribs) 16:34, 30 October 2026 (UTC)Reply

I've had my eyes on this for a while and can't wait to review. Understanding concepts was absolutely fundamental to me learning to teach better, and I can't wait to learn more about them! I have my own theory too, that concepts are encoded as sensual patterns, and I'm interested to see if that's an idea already present in the literature. Thanks for writing. IAWW (talk) 16:34, 30 October 2026 (UTC)Reply

Hi It is a wonderful world, thanks for reviewing this nomination. I'm looking forward to your comments. Phlsph7 (talk) 16:53, 30 October 2026 (UTC)Reply

Hey It is a wonderful world, just checking whether you have more review comments. Phlsph7 (talk) 09:56, 12 November 2026 (UTC)Reply

Prose (criteria 1a, 1b and 4) clock

Lead

Concept learning is the process of acquiring a new concept, which is required before an individual can use it: Doesn't this disregard possible innate concepts, which are referenced and explained elsewhere in the article? IAWW (talk) 11:24, 1 November 2026 (UTC)Reply

That probably depends on how "new concept" is interpreted. I changed it to "previously unknown concept" to make it clear that this does not apply to innate concepts. Phlsph7 (talk) 09:36, 2 November 2026 (UTC)Reply

Definition and central features

Roles

People can also form new concepts by combining existing ones to represent new ideas: This repeats the earlier In some cases, new concepts are formed by combining pre-existing ones, such as combining the concepts white and cat to form the concept white cat. I don't really see any reason not to cut it to prevent repetition. IAWW (talk) 16:56, 30 October 2026 (UTC)Reply

Removed. Phlsph7 (talk) 10:12, 31 October 2026 (UTC)Reply

Types

Complex concepts are created by combining simpler concepts to encode more specific information. In some cases, they are formed by intersecting the meanings of two concepts. For example, combining the concepts red and apple yields the complex concept red apple: Same again, but I'd be happy to keep it here as it is used to explain the idea of complex concepts. IAWW (talk) 17:00, 30 October 2026 (UTC)Reply

I agree: it could be challenging to properly explain complex concepts without this repetition. Phlsph7 (talk) 10:12, 31 October 2026 (UTC)Reply

Theories

This is outside the scope of the GA review, but I'm curious what theory you align with most? I think my opinion is that our brains do have necessary and sufficient conditions (which are not as easy to put into words as "unmarried adult human male"), and when we take longer to make judgements about membership, what has actually occurred is our brain is identifying a new object and deciding whether to modify the existing concept slightly. IAWW (talk) 21:07, 30 October 2026 (UTC)Reply

That's a challenging topic. My impression is that many cognitive processes can be involved in categorization. For some concepts, definition- or theory-based processes dominate while others are more strongly influenced by similarity-based processes. I guess this idea aligns most closely with some form of pluralism about concepts. Phlsph7 (talk) 10:12, 31 October 2026 (UTC)Reply

That's a great perspective and I could very well see that being the case. IAWW (talk) 21:51, 31 October 2026 (UTC)Reply

Classical

Prototypes and exemplars

Theory theory, atomism, and pluralism

As mental entities

As abstract objects

This does a really good job of explaining Platonism. I didn't know what this was but had heard the term used, and now I think I understand it relatively well. IAWW (talk) 11:24, 1 November 2026 (UTC)Reply

Thanks, glad to hear that! Phlsph7 (talk) 09:37, 2 November 2026 (UTC)Reply

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History

Formation and learning

Learning mechanisms and situations

Children, animals, and artificial intelligence

In various fields

Psychology

Philosophy

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