Representation or Expression: What is the Nature of Concepts? (2011)

Undergraduate: Kevin Richardson

Faculty Advisor: John Roberts
Department: Philosophy

---

What does it mean to have a concept or idea? In the philosophical literature, there are two competing theories of concepts. One says that concepts primarily represent the world; what a concept means is determined by the external world. Another theory says that concepts are expressions of human norms; what a concept means is determined by us as rational beings. Robert Brandom is a pioneer of this latter type of theory. He believes concepts are socially instituted. But this suggests that it is obly us who determine the norms. If this were true, concepts would not be independent of social dictates; words and ideas would mean just what our society takes them to mean. This is problematic because we typically think concepts represent the world rather than express our social status. This is the problem I explored using my 2010 SURF grant. My research found that a modified version of Brandom's theory can address this problem.