What are Concepts?

The article argues that a reasonably unified account of the established use of ‘concept’ and its cognates can be provided by a cognitivist approach. Such an approach starts out from the role the ascription of concepts plays in characterizing certain cognitive operations and abilities, yet without treating concepts as symbolic representations or particulars in the minds of individuals. In particular, it explores the idea that concepts are rules or principles of classification and inference. At the end I argue that a cognitivist account can deal not just with the role of concepts in cognition, but also with the idea that they are components of propositions.