Concepts in Thought, Action, and Emotion

In recent years, the idea of a concept has become increasingly central to different areas of philosophy. This collection of original essays presents philosophical perspectives on the link between concepts and language, concepts and experience, concepts and know-how, and concepts and emotion. The essays span a variety of interrelated philosophical domains ranging from epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, and the philosophy of emotions. Among the central questions addressed by the contributors are: What are concepts? What is nonconceptual content? Does perceptual experience have conceptual content? Is conceptual thought language dependent? How do we form new concepts? Does practical knowledge have propositional content? Is practical understanding conceptual (without being propositional)? Do emotions have a representational content and if so, is the representational content conceptual? Concepts in Thought, Action, and Emotion advances current debates about concepts and will interest scholars across a broad range of philosophical disciplines.

Christoph Demmerling is Professor for Theoretical Philosophy at Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena. He is co-editor of the Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie. The philosophy of emotions, philosophy of language, and phenomenology are his main research areas. He has published a great number of writings, among them Sinn, Bedeutung, Verstehen. Untersuchungen zu Sprachphilosophie und Hermeneutik (2002) and Philosophie der Gefühle. Von Achtung bis Zorn (2007; with Hilge Landwer). Dirk Schröder is Research Associate in the department of philosophy at the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena. He is the author of Bedeutung und Bedeutsamkeit. Philosophische Überlegungen zum Verhältnis von sprachlichem und nicht-sprachlichem Verstehen (mentis, forthcoming) and coauthor of the article Fähigkeiten und praktische Begriffe (DZPhil, 2013; with Christoph Demmerling).

1. Introduction: Concepts in Thought, Action and Emotion Christoph Demmerling and Dirk Schröder Part I. Concepts and Experience 2. Concepts and Experience: A Non-Representationalist Perspective Hans-Johann Glock 3. Conceptualism and the Notion of a Concept Hannah Ginsborg 4. Concepts, Belief, and Perception Alex Byrne 5. The Explanatory Merits of Reasons-First Epistemology Eva Schmidt Part II. Concepts and Language 6. Conceptual Thought Without Language? The Case from Animal Cognition Markus Wild 7. Concepts, Normativity, and Self-Knowledge: On Ginsborg's Notion of Primitive Normativity David Lauer 8. A Role for Language in Concept Formation Jasper Liptow 9. Practical Understanding, Concepts, and Language Dirk Schröder Part III. Concepts and Knowledge-How 10. Concepts and Action: Know-how and Beyond David Löwenstein 11. Knowledge-How and Its Exercises Hannes Worthmann 12. Practical Understanding: Skill as Grasp of Method John Bengson 13. Primary Know-How: Understanding Through Practical Concepts Martin Weichold Part IV. Concepts and Emotion 14. Emotions Inside Out: The Nonconceptual Content of Emotions Christine Tappolet 15. A Challenge to Perceptual Theories of Emotion Jan Slaby 16. Emotions and the Conceptual Space of Human Life Christoph Demmerling