Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-21T14:03:22.214Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rebooting the bootstrap argument: Two puzzles for bootstrap theories of concept development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2011

Lance J. Rips  and
Susan J. Hespos
Lance J. Rips
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208. rips@northwestern.eduhttp://mental.psych.northwestern.eduhespos@northwestern.eduhttp://groups.psych.northwestern.edu/infantcognitionlab/sue.html
Susan J. Hespos
Affiliation:
Psychology Department, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208. rips@northwestern.eduhttp://mental.psych.northwestern.eduhespos@northwestern.eduhttp://groups.psych.northwestern.edu/infantcognitionlab/sue.html
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Origin of Concepts sets out an impressive defense of the view that children construct entirely new systems of concepts. We offer here two questions about this theory. First, why doesn't the bootstrapping process provide a pattern for translating between the old and new systems, contradicting their claimed incommensurability? Second, can the bootstrapping process properly distinguish meaning change from belief change?

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , June 2011 , pp. 145 - 146
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Carey, S. (2009) The origin of concepts. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fodor, J. A. (1994) Concepts: A potboiler. Cognition 50:95–113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laurence, S. & Margolis, E. (2002) Radical concept nativism. Cognition 86:22–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Macnamara, J. (1986) A border dispute: The place of logic in psychology. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Rips, L. J., Asmuth, J. & Bloomfield, A. (2006) Giving the boot to the bootstrap: How not to learn the natural numbers. Cognition 101:B51–B60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rips, L. J., Bloomfield, A. & Asmuth, J. (2008) From numerical concepts to concepts of number. Behavioral & Brain Sciences 31:623–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed