In my own investigations of things, I found I did a few things, to my surprise: I ditched Epistemology. I focus on Ontologies. Ontologies-as-basically word-lists. But what kinds of words? Concepts. Ontologies consist of concepts. But what’s a concept? This one bugged me forever until I found “Theory-Theory” and found myself agreeing with it over “Theory of Mind” as it seems to ring more true. [that humans make theories – it’s what we do]. So: A concept is a theory of a category. Boom. For me that says it. Finally got it. Now, borrowing from notions of “private and public” language, I think we each have many ontologies, some shared with others – even standardized, and some are our own. Since we tend to “share words”, we can be talking to each other using all the same WORDS, but meaning entirely different things because we our working from different ontologies: different hierarchies of concepts formed from theories of categories. It’s amazing communication happens at all.

In my own investigations of things, I found I did a few things, to my surprise:

I ditched Epistemology.
I focus on Ontologies.
Ontologies-as-basically word-lists.

But what kinds of words?

Concepts. Ontologies consist of concepts.

But what’s a concept? This one bugged me forever until I found “Theory-Theory” and found myself agreeing with it over “Theory of Mind” as it seems to ring more true. [that humans make theories – it’s what we do].

So:

A concept is a theory of a category.

Boom. For me that says it. Finally got it.

Now, borrowing from notions of “private and public” language, I think we each have many ontologies, some shared with others – even standardized, and some are our own.

Since we tend to “share words”, we can be talking to each other using all the same WORDS, but meaning entirely different things because we our working from different ontologies: different hierarchies of concepts formed from theories of categories.

It’s amazing communication happens at all.

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Now I don’t know if I am in line with Wittgenstein or not. Never read him outside of quotes. But from what you said there and what I’d heard, what I’m thinking _seems_ to have a family resemblence to Wittgenstein.

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“Justified belief” as a concept never ‘clicked’ for me. I tried for YEARS to find a spot for it but it’s just not how I think.

I’m kind of a GO / NO-GO kind of guy. Not so much binary but rather I don’t like the wibbly-wobbly notions when they never seem to get anywhere.

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