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Can mere phonemes be components of Millikan's substance concepts?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 1998

Niko Scharer
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, M5S 1A1 nscharer@chass.utoronto.ca

Abstract

In presenting her attractive theory of concepts, Millikan makes an unwarranted assumption about the role of language in concept acquisition. The phoneme string, rather than the “word” as a semantic entity, may suffice to play the crucial role in the acquisition of substance concepts. Hence Millikan may underestimate the degree of similarity between language and other media of perception.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
© 1998 Cambridge University Press

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