About this list
During my time studying Erkenntnis I already had the honor to experience that my network of defined concepts has a living nature and is constantly developing. Often the concepts that I connect to words are too narrowly defined. For many words a more general concept can be found, and the seemingly many meanings of a word can be reasonably reduced to a few or just one general concept.
When we think with mental images, then we have a very specific shape in our mind. We can call them an individualized concept or a Vorstellung. When we practice to think with concepts, then we connect the words to the idea, the nature of a thing. Concepts are general, and our network of concepts is living and growing, the more we think. The entries in the list of concepts are not static, but change and grow with my Erkenntnis, with my worldview. I am trying to give the most general matching concept to every word. I will not always succeed with my first attempt, and that’s why this list is alive.
Because a word is not always used for its most general concept in everyday language, I will also mention more specific concepts that are commonly used. For especially interesting words I will write a blog article – or even several articles.
This list of concepts uses words to name the listed concepts. Unfortunately, a word can be connected to multiple concepts, many words can be used in different ways. This list is intended to have only explicit assignments of one word to one concept. This glossary automatically creates links on the website and requires each word to appear only once in the list. It would be possible to include multiple concepts into one list entry. But in that case the entry would be no longer translatable to German. A German word used for the same combination of concepts will be rarely found. There is usually only a partial overlap. An example will be given soon with the words Image and Vorstellung. This website is aimed at readers with philosophical interest, experience with philosophical texts is not expected. Therefore I try to assign words to the concept that they are most commonly used for in daily life. If a word is most common for two concepts, one of the concepts will end up with a less common word. I cannot yet predict how difficult writing will become for me with this approach. If you find words that are used for multiple concepts on this website, or do not agree with the assignment of a word and concept, please write it in a comment.
Concepts are essential for thinking and understanding. We have thousands of concepts and typically assign words to them. For example a stone. When I say that word, you will have an image of a stone in your mind. You can imagine a stone, only when reading the word, because you have a concept of it. Naturally, not everyone will imagine the exact same stone. Some may see a natural boulder in the forest. Others a block to build a house. Others a decorative, smooth and round mineral. What all have in common, that defines the concept of a stone.
This list aims to summarize and explain concepts used on this website. If I use the word stone, I must know what the concept of a stone is and what the reader will imagine when reading that word. It would be easy if all words had a clear and global concept. There would be no misunderstandings. But reality is complex. A word may be used for multiple concepts, and for a concept multiple words can exist. And when we use a word, most of us are not fully aware of its concept. We have an image in mind, of course. But can we explain the concept?
It gets even more complicated with translations. Words in different languages can be used for different combinations of concepts. The concepts of words commonly used for a translation can be slightly different. The availability of words for concepts differs. For example, the human eye can differentiate millions of colors. We assign those colors to groups, like red, yellow, green and blue. In some cultures, the groups are different. For example, green and blue can be in the same group. Then there is a word for a concept that ranges from green to blue. There is no such word in English.
Long story short, if you read a word on this website and you have no idea what I am trying to say, or if a statement does not make sense to you, check the words in this list of concepts and see if we imagine the same stone. Maybe we succeed in leaving the mental image behind altogether and think the nature of a stone, its sub-concepts.
In an effort to keep my texts easy to read, I am trying to connect words to concepts that are matching the common understanding of the word.