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A concept (abstract term: conception) is a cognitive unit of meaningan abstract idea or a

mental symbol sometimes defined as a "unit of knowledge," built from other units which act as a
concept's characteristics A concept is typically associated with a corresponding representation in
a language or symbology!citation needed" such as a single meaning of a term
#here are prevailing theories in contemporary philosophy which attempt to e$plain the nature of
concepts #he representational theory of mind proposes that concepts are mental representations,
while the semantic theory of concepts (originating with %rege's distinction between concept and
ob&ect) holds that they are abstract ob&ects!'" (deas are taken to be concepts, although abstract
concepts do not necessarily appear to the mind as images as some ideas do!)" *any
philosophers consider concepts to be a fundamental ontological category of being
#he meaning of "concept" is e$plored in mainstream cognitive science, metaphysics, and
philosophy of mind #he term "concept" is traced back to '++,-./ (latin conceptum 0
"something conceived"),!citation needed" but what is today termed "the classical theory of
concepts" is the theory of Aristotle on the definition of terms!citation needed"

Origin and acquisition of concepts

A posterior abstractions
1ohn 2ocke's description of a general idea corresponds to a description of a concept According
to 2ocke, a general idea is created by abstracting, drawing away, or removing the common
characteristic or characteristics from several particular ideas #his common characteristic is that
which is similar to all of the different individuals %or e$ample, the abstract general idea or
concept that is designated by the word "red" is that characteristic which is common to apples,
cherries, and blood #he abstract general idea or concept that is signified by the word "dog" is the
collection of those characteristics which are common to Airedales, 3ollies, and 3hihuahuas
(n the same tradition as 2ocke, 1ohn 4tuart *ill stated that general conceptions are formed
through abstraction A general conception is the common element among the many images of
members of a class "!5"hen we form a set of phenomena into a class, that is, when we
compare them with one another to ascertain in what they agree, some general conception is
implied in this mental operation" (A System of Logic, 6ook (7, 3h (() *ill did not believe that
concepts e$ist in the mind before the act of abstraction "(t is not a law of our intellect, that, in
comparing things with each other and taking note of their agreement, we merely recogni8e as
reali8ed in the outward world something that we already had in our minds #he conception
originally found its way to us as the result of such a comparison (t was obtained (in
metaphysical phrase) by abstraction from individual things" (Ibid.)
%or 4chopenhauer, empirical concepts "are mere abstractions from what is known through
intuitive perception, and they have arisen from our arbitrarily thinking away or dropping of some
9ualities and our retention of others" (Parerga and Paralipomena, 7ol (, "4ketch of a :istory of
the (deal and the ;eal") (n his On the Will in Nature, "<hysiology and <athology," 4chopenhauer
said that a concept is "drawn off from previous images by putting off their differences #his
concept is then no longer intuitively perceptible, but is denoted and fi$ed merely by words"
=iet8sche, who was heavily influenced by 4chopenhauer, wrote: ">very concept originates
through our e9uating what is une9ual =o leaf ever wholly e9uals another, and the concept 'leaf'
is formed through an arbitrary abstraction from these individual differences, through forgetting
the distinctions"!?"
6y contrast to the above philosophers, (mmanuel @ant held that the account of the concept as an
abstraction of e$perience is only partly correct :e called those concepts that result of abstraction
"a posteriori concepts" (meaning concepts that arise out of e$perience) An empirical or an a
posteriori concept is a general representation (Vorstellung) or non0specific thought of that which
is common to several specific perceived ob&ects (2ogic, (, ', A', =ote ')
A concept is a common feature or characteristic @ant investigated the way that empirical a
posteriori concepts are created
#he logical acts of the understanding by which concepts are generated as to their form
are: (') comparison, ie, the likening of mental images to one another in relation to the
unity of consciousnessB ()) reflection, ie, the going back over different mental images,
how they can be comprehended in one consciousnessB and finally (?) abstraction or the
segregation of everything else by which the mental images differ (n order to make our
mental images into concepts, one must thus be able to compare, reflect, and abstract, for
these three logical operations of the understanding are essential and general conditions of
generating any concept whatever %or e$ample, ( see a fir, a willow, and a linden (n
firstly comparing these ob&ects, ( notice that they are different from one another in respect
of trunk, branches, leaves, and the likeB further, however, ( reflect only on what they have
in common, the trunk, the branches, the leaves themselves, and abstract from their si8e,
shape, and so forthB thus ( gain a concept of a tree
- Logic, !
@ant's description of the making of a concept has been paraphrased as "to conceive is
essentially to think in abstraction what is common to a plurality of possible instances" (:1
<aton, "ant#s $etaphysics of %&perience, (, )+/) (n his discussion of @ant, 3hristopher 1anaway
wrote: "generic concepts are formed by abstraction from more than one species"!,"
A priori concepts
*ain article: 3ategory (@ant)
@ant declared that human minds possess pure or a priori concepts (nstead of being abstracted
from individual perceptions, like empirical concepts, they originate in the mind itself :e called
these concepts categories, in the sense of the word that means predicate, attribute, characteristic,
or 9uality 6ut these pure categories are predicates of things in general, not of a particular thing
According to @ant, there are ') categories that constitute the understanding of phenomenal
ob&ects >ach category is that one predicate which is common to multiple empirical concepts (n
order to e$plain how an a priori concept can relate to individual phenomena, in a manner
analogous to an a posteriori concept, @ant employed the technical concept of the schema
Conceptual structure
#his section re9uires e$pansion
(t seems intuitively obvious that concepts must have some kind of structure Cp until recently,
the dominant view of conceptual structure was a containment model, associated with the
classical view of concepts According to this model, a concept is endowed with certain necessary
and sufficient conditions in their description which une9uivocally determine an e$tension #he
containment model allows for no degreesB a thing is either in, or out, of the concept's e$tension
6y contrast, the inferential model understands conceptual structure to be determined in a graded
manner, according to the tendency of the concept to be used in certain kinds of inferences As a
result, concepts do not have a kind of structure that is in terms of necessary and sufficient
conditionsB all conditions are contingent (*argolis:+)
:owever, some theorists claim that primitive concepts lack any structure at all %or instance,
1erry %odor presents his Asymmetric Dependence #heory as a way of showing how a primitive
concept's content is determined by a reliable relationship between the information in mental
contents and the world #hese sorts of claims are referred to as "atomistic", because the primitive
concept is treated as if it were a genuine atom
Conceptual content
[edit] Content as pragmatic role
[edit] Embodied content
(n cognitive linguistics, abstract concepts are transformations of concrete concepts derived from
embodied e$perience #he mechanism of transformation is structural mapping, in which
properties of two or more source domains are selectively mapped onto a blended space
(%auconnier E #urner, 'FF+B see conceptual blending) A common class of blends are metaphors
#his theory contrasts with the rationalist view that concepts are perceptions (or recollections, in
<lato's term) of an independently e$isting world of ideas, in that it denies the e$istence of any
such realm (t also contrasts with the empiricist view that concepts are abstract generali8ations of
individual e$periences, because the contingent and bodily e$perience is preserved in a concept,
and not abstracted away 5hile the perspective is compatible with 1amesian pragmatism (above),
the notion of the transformation of embodied concepts through structural mapping makes a
distinct contribution to the problem of concept formation
Philosophical implications
Concepts and metaphilosophy
A long and well0established tradition philosophy posits that philosophy itself is nothing more
than conceptual analysis #his view has its proponents in contemporary literature as well as
historical According to Deleu8e and Guattari's What Is Philosophy' ('FF'), philosophy is the
activity of creating concepts #his creative activity differs from previous definitions of
philosophy as simple reasoning, communication or contemplation of universals 3oncepts are
specific to philosophy: science creates "functions", and art "sensations" A concept is always
signed: thus, Descartes' (ogito or @ant's "transcendental" (t is a singularity, not universal, and
connects itself with others concepts, on a "plane of immanence" traced by a particular
philosophy 3oncepts can &ump from one plane of immanence to another, combining with other
concepts and therefore engaging in a "becoming0Hther"
Concepts in epistemology
%or more details on this topic, see 2ist of concepts in science
3oncepts are vital to the development of scientific knowledge %or e$ample, it would be difficult
to imagine physics without concepts like: energy, force, or acceleration 3oncepts help to
integrate apparently unrelated observations and phenomena into viable hypotheses and theories,
the basic ingredients of science #he concept map is a tool that is used to help researchers
visuali8e the inter0relationships between various concepts
Ontology of concepts
Although the mainstream literature in cognitive science regards the concept as a kind of mental
particular, it has been suggested by some theorists that concepts are real things (*argolis:I) (n
most radical form, the realist about concepts attempts to show that the supposedly mental
processes are not mental at allB rather, they are abstract entities, which are &ust as real as any
mundane ob&ect
<lato was the starkest proponent of the realist thesis of universal concepts 6y his view, concepts
(and ideas in general) are innate ideas that were instantiations of a transcendental world of pure
forms that laid behind the veil of the physical world (n this way, universals were e$plained as
transcendent ob&ects =eedless to say this form of realism was tied deeply with <lato's
ontological pro&ects #his remark on <lato is not of merely historical interest %or e$ample, the
view that numbers are <latonic ob&ects was revived by @urt GJdel as a result of certain pu88les
that he took to arise from the phenomenological accounts!+"
Gottlob %rege, founder of the analytic tradition in philosophy, famously argued for the analysis
of language in terms of sense and reference %or him, the sense of an e$pression in language
describes a certain state of affairs in the world, namely, the way that some ob&ect is presented
4ince many commentators view the notion of sense as identical to the notion of concept, and
%rege regards senses as the linguistic representations of states of affairs in the world, it seems to
follow that we may understand concepts as the manner in which we grasp the world
Accordingly, concepts (as senses) have an ontological status (*orgolis:K)
According to 3arl 6en&amin 6oyer, in the introduction to his )he *istory of the (alculus and its
(onceptual +e,elopment, concepts in calculus do not refer to perceptions As long as the
concepts are useful and mutually compatible, they are accepted on their own %or e$ample, the
concepts of the derivative and the integral are not considered to refer to spatial or temporal
perceptions of the e$ternal world of e$perience =either are they related in any way to
mysterious limits in which 9uantities are on the verge of nascence or evanescence, that is,
coming into or going out of appearance or e$istence #he abstract concepts are now considered
to be totally autonomous, even though they originated from the process of abstracting or taking
away 9ualities from perceptions until only the common, essential attributes remained
Concepts in Empirical Investigations
3oncepts, as abstract units of meaning, play a key role in the development and testing of
theories %or e$ample, a simple relational hypothesis can be viewed as either a conceptual
hypothesis (where the abstract concepts form the meaning) or an operationali8ed hypothesis,
which is situated in the real world by rules of interpretation %or e$ample, take the simple
hypothesis >ducation increases (ncome #he abstract notion of education and income (concepts)
could have many meanings A conceptual hypothesis cannot be tested #hey need to be converted
into operational hypothesis or the abstract meaning of education must be derived or
operationali8ed to something in the real world that can be measured >ducation could be
measured by Lyears of school completedM or Lhighest degree completedM etc (ncome could be
measured by Lhourly rate of payM or Lyearly salaryM etc #he system of concepts or conceptual
framework can take on many levels of comple$ity 5hen the conceptual framework is very
comple$ and incorporates causality or e$planation they are generally referred to as a theory
=oted philosopher of science 3arl Gustav :empel says this more elo9uently LAn ade9uate
empirical interpretation turns a theoretical system into a testable theory: #he hypothesis whose
constituent terms have been interpreted become capable of test by reference to observable
phenomena %re9uently the interpreted hypothesis will be derivative hypotheses of the theoryB
but their confirmation or disconfirmation by empirical data will then immediately strengthen or
weaken also the primitive hypotheses from which they were derivedM !."
:empel provides a useful metaphor that describes the relationship between the conceptual
framework and the framework as it is observed and perhaps tested (interpreted framework) L#he
whole system floats, as it were, above the plane of observation and is anchored to it by rules of
interpretation #hese might be viewed as strings which are not part of the network but link
certain points of the latter with specific places in the plane of observation 6y virtue of those
interpretative connections, the network can function as a scientific theoryM