April 5th Notes REL 304 Building and Transmitting Concepts Building Concepts - Concepts (ideas, etc.

c.) are mental states that facilitate thinking, belief and action - Concepts are constructed (each time you think them) using various mental tools and cognitive processes. Two key tools and processes of concept construction: - Templates innate mental patterns used to sort the world into categories: person, animal, plant, object - Inference systems innate mental processes that automatically enrich concepts using natural expectations. - Templates and inferences enable the building of new and imaginative concepts. Transmitting Concepts - The process of concept building supports human social life. o The ability to build, acquire, and transmit concepts enables communication (e.g. language) o The ability to build, acquire, and transmit concepts creates culture - Communication is a two-sided process: the mind of the hearer reconstructs each concept that is received. Counterintuitive Concepts - Counterintuitive concepts contravene (go against, break, defy) our natural expectations about how things work in the real world. - Two structural properties: (1) natural expectations associated with a specific category are preserved while (2) others are contravened. o Two ways to introduce counterintuitive features: Violations breaking a natural expectation. Transfers switching a natural expectation. o Three kinds of counterintuitive changes: Biological altering a biological expectation Physical altering a physical expectation. Psychological altering a psychological expectation. - Four categories of counterintuitive concepts: o Templates: person, animal, plant, object. - Counterintuitive concepts are easily made and understandable because they are built on natural (ordinary) categories. - Counterintuitive concepts hare a transmission advantage because they are attention-grabbing and memorable. - Counterintuitive concepts can include extraordinary properties that make them highly relevant and worthy of attention. - Religion is based on counterintuitive concepts; all gods and related supernatural ideas are counterintuitive. -