Concepts, Perception, and Wittgenstein’s Theory: a conversation with the sciences

Abstract

This article presents results from experiments of the experimental psychology and Neurosciences about the effects of concepts in perceptions. By bringing these results to philosophy, its aim is to relate the effects of the concepts in perceptions with Wittgenstein’s theory about the subject. According to psychologists and neuroscientists, the use of concepts may guide the acknowledgment of sounds, such as recognizing more easily the sound of a blender after hearing the rustle of leaves. Therefore concepts, following Wittgenstein, are skills of cognitive agents, who learn them from a collective use of language.