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The Challenges of Abstract Concepts

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Handbook of Embodied Psychology

Abstract

Some have recently suggested that abstract concepts do not constitute a substantial challenge to embodied cognition because they do not form a unified category. In this chapter, I argue that abstract concepts are indeed heterogeneous but as such pose several distinct theoretical challenges. After surveying the current evidence for, and responses to, these challenges, I conclude that a comprehensive embodied account that addresses the diversity of abstract concepts remains possible. Several desiderata for a future theory emerge from this critical review. A successful theory will need to embrace not only distributed multimodal representations but also recognize the importance of the emotions and the language system; to posit a hierarchical architecture that includes cross-modal convergence zones or hubs; and to provide a robust explanation for the semantic flexibility of concepts in general and abstract concepts in particular.

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  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Louisville, 313B Bingham Humanities Building, Louisville, KY, 40292, USA

    Guy Dove

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    Michael D. Robinson

  2. NDSU Department of Psychology, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA

    Laura E. Thomas

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Dove, G. (2021). The Challenges of Abstract Concepts. In: Robinson, M.D., Thomas, L.E. (eds) Handbook of Embodied Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78471-3_8

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