conceptare
Conceptare is a term encountered mainly in contemporary cognitive science and philosophy of mind to denote the act or process of forming a concept. In this usage, conceptare refers to the cognitive operation by which a thinker abstracts common properties from particulars, constructs a stable mental representation, and assigns it as a general category or idea. The term is intended to capture a generative aspect of concept formation that goes beyond mere perceptual grouping, labeling, or memory recall. Because of its focus on creating or articulating new mental content, conceptare is often contrasted with categorization, which assigns items to preexisting concepts rather than generating new ones.
The word is derived from the Latin verb conceptare, from conceptus "something conceived", indicating the act
In current discussions, the scope of conceptare varies; some scholars treat it as the core mechanism of
Because conceptare is not standardized, definitions differ and may hinder cross-disciplinary communication; critics warn that inconsistent
Related topics include concept formation, conceptual change, abstraction, and categorization.