Concepts and categories are essential to the human experience

🔥Thought#note/thought
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We use concepts to categorize the input we receive: color (red, blue, green), government (democracy, communism), and emotion (happy, sad).

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Philosophers and scientists define a category as a collection of objects, events, or actions that are grouped together as equivalent for some purpose. They define a concept as a mental representation of a category. Traditionally, categories are supposed to exist in the world, while concepts exist in your head. For example, you have a concept of the color “Red.” When you apply this concept to wavelengths of light to perceive a red rose in a park, that red color is an instance of the category “Red.”* Your brain downplays the differences between the members of a category, such as the diverse shades of red roses in a botanical garden, to consider those members equivalent as “red.” Your brain also magnifies differences between members
How Emotions Are Made The Secret Life of the Brain - Lisa Feldman Barrett · Page 87

Our brains amplify and downplay the differences between categories to simplify our world. There is an example in the book How Emotions Are Made showing that we perceived rainbows as defined bands of color when they are actually a continuous spectrum that has no clear categorical boundaries.

Step one in learning is to notice and name. We cannot categorize input if we haven't learned the concepts and categories. The granularity with which we understand concepts and categories is essential to developing a nuanced understanding of the world.

We also have goal based concepts which are incredibly flexible and adaptable. Things from many different objects can fit into "things I can defend myself with" and many different activities can fit into "things that are fun".

Sometimes things overlap and we need to adapt our categories on the fly: When categorizing fish you are unlikely to ask for a goldfish at the meat market and equally unlikely to ask for a salmon filet at the pet store.

With words we can create patterns which can't be directly observed in the world, patterns of concepts that exist in other people's minds. We use the powerful tool of conceptual combination to make limitless ad hoc concepts.

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Nature provided your brain with the raw materials to wire itself with a conceptual system.
How Emotions Are Made The Secret Life of the Brain - Lisa Feldman Barrett · Page 103
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