nonconceptual

Nonconceptual is a term used primarily in philosophy of mind and epistemology to describe the content of some mental states that does not depend on the possessor having or using concepts. A nonconceptual state is said to carry informative content about the world even if the subject cannot or does not apply the relevant concepts to those features.

In debates about perception, nonconceptual content is invoked to explain how we can have perceptual knowledge or experience of properties such as color, shape, depth, or spatial relations without necessarily categorizing them conceptually. For example, a person might see a patch of green without possessing the concept green, or discern a particular spatial layout before forming any judgment about it. Philosophers distinguish between nonconceptual content (information about the world in perception that does not require concepts) and conceptual content (information that depends on the possessor’s concepts and judgments). There are variations within the view, including weak claims that perceptual content is partly nonconceptual and strong claims that perception delivers nonconceptual content independently of concepts, which is later conceptualized only when a judgment is made.

Historically, the notion gained prominence in discussions about how perception relates to thought and knowledge, notably in late 20th-century discussions surrounding the idea that perception can deliver content that is not yet shaped by concepts. Proponents argue that nonconceptual content helps account for the immediacy and richness of perceptual experience, while critics question whether perceptual content can truly be divorced from conceptual structure or argue that alleged nonconceptual content is ultimately dependent on concepts.

In addition to philosophy, the idea appears in cognitive science and discussions of artificial perception, where researchers use “nonconceptual representations” to describe sensory encodings that inform behavior without requiring symbolic, concept-laden processing.