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From: eyal@wisdom.BITNET (Eyal mozes)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest
Subject: Re: natural kinds
Message-ID: <8707290630.AA23066@jade.berkeley.edu>
Date: Thu, 30-Jul-87 01:21:59 EDT
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Posted: Thu Jul 30 01:21:59 1987
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An important theory that has so far not been mentioned in the
discussion on "natural kinds" is the Objectivist theory of concepts.
In essence, this theory regards universal concepts, such as "chair" or
"bird", as the result of a process of "measurement-omission", which
mentally integrates objects by omitting the particular measurements of
their common characteristics.  The theory takes into account the point
mentioned in Minsky's recent message about structure and function, and
completely solves Wittgenstein's problem.

The theory is presented in the book "Introduction to Objectivist
Epistemology" by Ayn Rand, and, more recently, in the paper "A theory
of abstraction" by David Kelley (Cognition and Brain Theory, vol. 7
no. 3&4, summer/fall 1984, pp. 329-357).

        Eyal Mozes

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