Concepts with Family Meanings in the Humanities

Abstract

The development of methodological research has stimulated interest in language as a means of communication. Philosophical discussion of the process of concept formation brought to light many aspects of scientific concepts and concepts used in everyday language. Much stress has been put on finding clear, empirical criteria for the application of concepts, in order to ensure maximal decidability of statements in which those concepts appear. The conception of empirical indicators for such directly inaccessible entities as attitudes, character or personality traits has been developed. R. Carnap called our attention to a large class of only partially definable concepts. Such concepts often refer to various physical or psychological dispositions and are, consequently, called dispositional concepts.