A conceptual system is a

system A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its open system (systems theory), environment, is described by its boundaries, str ...

of abstract concepts, of various kinds. The abstract concepts can range "from numbers, to emotions, and from social roles, to mental states ..". These abstract concepts are themselves grounded in multiple systems. In

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

, a ''conceptual system'' is an individual's

mental model A mental model is an internal representation of external reality: that is, a way of representing reality within one's mind. Such models are hypothesized to play a major role in cognition, reasoning and decision-making. The term for this concept wa ...

of the world; in

cognitive science Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition (in a broad sense). Mental faculties of concern to cognitive scientists include percep ...

the model is gradually diffused to the

scientific community The scientific community is a diverse network of interacting scientists. It includes many "working group, sub-communities" working on particular scientific fields, and within particular institutions; interdisciplinary and cross-institutional acti ...

; in a

society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...

the model can become an

institution An institution is a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and ...

. In humans, a conceptual system may be understood as kind of a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

for the world. A

belief system A belief is a subjective attitude that something is true or a state of affairs is the case. A subjective attitude is a mental state of having some stance, take, or opinion about something. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" ...

is composed of

belief A belief is a subjective Attitude (psychology), attitude that something is truth, true or a State of affairs (philosophy), state of affairs is the case. A subjective attitude is a mental state of having some Life stance, stance, take, or opinion ...

Jonathan Glover Jonathan Glover (; born 1941) is a British philosopher known for his books and studies on ethics. He currently teaches ethics at King's College London. Glover is a fellow of the Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institution in ...

, following Meadows (2008) suggests that tenets of belief, once held by tenants, are surprisingly difficult for the tenants to reverse, or to unhold, tenet by tenet. MarsReconnaissanceOrbiter-Views-EarthMoon-20220422

MarsReconnaissanceOrbiter-Views-EarthMoon-20220422

Thomas Nagel Thomas Nagel (; born July 4, 1937) is an American philosopher. He is the University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at New York University, where he taught from 1980 until his retirement in 2016. His main areas of philosophical interest ...

(1974) identified a

thought experiment A thought experiment is an imaginary scenario that is meant to elucidate or test an argument or theory. It is often an experiment that would be hard, impossible, or unethical to actually perform. It can also be an abstract hypothetical that is ...

for non-humans in " What is it like to be a bat?".

David Premack David Premack (October 26, 1925 – June 11, 2015) was an American psychologist who was a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. He was educated at the University of Minnesota when logical positivism was in full bloom. The dep ...

and Ann James Premack (1983) assert that some non-humans (such as apes) can understand a non-human language.Premack, David & Premack, Ann James. (1983) '' The Mind of an Ape'', p. 13. . The earliest activities in the description of language have been attributed to the 6th-century-BC Indian grammarian

Pāṇini (; , ) was a Sanskrit grammarian, logician, philologist, and revered scholar in ancient India during the mid-1st millennium BCE, dated variously by most scholars between the 6th–5th and 4th century BCE. The historical facts of his life ar ...

who wrote a formal description of the

Sanskrit language Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

in his ' (

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental systems: alphabets, writing system), based on the ancient ''Brāhmī script, Brā ...

अष्टाध्यायी). Today, modern-day theories on

grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...

employ many of the principles that were laid down then. In the

formal science Formal science is a branch of science studying disciplines concerned with abstract structures described by formal systems, such as logic, mathematics, statistics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence, information theory, game t ...

formal system A formal system is an abstract structure and formalization of an axiomatic system used for deducing, using rules of inference, theorems from axioms. In 1921, David Hilbert proposed to use formal systems as the foundation of knowledge in ma ...

s can have an ontological status independent of human thought, which cross across

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

s. Formal logical systems in a fixed formal language are an object of study.

Logical form In logic, the logical form of a statement is a precisely specified semantic version of that statement in a formal system. Informally, the logical form attempts to formalize a possibly ambiguous statement into a statement with a precise, unamb ...

s can be objects in these formal systems.

Abstract rewriting system In mathematical logic and theoretical computer science, an abstract rewriting system (also (abstract) reduction system or abstract rewrite system; abbreviated ARS) is a formalism that captures the quintessential notion and properties of rewriting ...

s can operate on these objects.

Axiomatic system In mathematics and logic, an axiomatic system is a set of formal statements (i.e. axioms) used to logically derive other statements such as lemmas or theorems. A proof within an axiom system is a sequence of deductive steps that establishes ...

s, and logic systems build upon axioms, and upon logical rules respectively, for their rewriting actions.

Proof assistant In computer science and mathematical logic, a proof assistant or interactive theorem prover is a software tool to assist with the development of formal proofs by human–machine collaboration. This involves some sort of interactive proof edi ...

s are finding acceptance in the mathematical community.

Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

in machines and

s need not be restricted to hardware, but can confer a relative advantage to the

s that adopt it, and adapt to it.

Canonical form In mathematics and computer science, a canonical, normal, or standard form of a mathematical object is a standard way of presenting that object as a mathematical expression. Often, it is one which provides the simplest representation of an obje ...

s in a suitable format and in a

critical mass In nuclear engineering, critical mass is the minimum mass of the fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction in a particular setup. The critical mass of a fissionable material depends upon its nuclear properties (specific ...

for acceptance can be monitored, commented upon, adopted, and applied by cooperating institutions in an upward spiral. ''See

Best practice A best practice is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior to alternatives because it tends to produce superior results. Best practices are used to achieve quality as an alternative to mandatory standards. Best practice ...

'' In technology,

Chiplet A chiplet is a tiny integrated circuit (IC) that contains a well-defined subset of functionality. It is designed to be combined with other chiplets on an interposer in a single package to create a complex component such as a computer processor. E ...

s are tiny hardware subsystem implementations of SoCs (systems on a chip) which can be interconnected into larger, or more responsive surroundings. Packaging SoCs into small hardware multi-chip packages allows more effective functions which confer a competitive advantage in economics, wars, or politics.''Breaking Defense'
(27 July 2023) How new modular chiplets in advanced semiconductors defend against dynamic threats
/ref> Conveyor belt

The

thermohaline circulation Thermohaline circulation (THC) is a part of the large-scale Ocean current, ocean circulation driven by global density gradients formed by surface heat and freshwater fluxes. The name ''thermohaline'' is derived from ''wikt:thermo-, thermo-'', r ...

can occur from the deep oceans to the ocean's surface. But the waters can mix; the thermohaline circulation from surface of the ocean to the deep ocean occurs only in restricted parts of the

world ocean The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Antarctic/Southern, and ...

in a thousand-year cycle. The Wilson Cycle is an explanation of the formation of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

; the

supercontinent cycle The supercontinent cycle is the quasi-periodic aggregation and dispersal of Earth's continental crust. There are varying opinions as to whether the amount of continental crust is increasing, decreasing, or staying about the same, but it is agree ...

s are a theory of the formation of supercontinent

Pangea Pangaea or Pangea ( ) was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia (continent), Siberia during the Carboniferous period ...

(335 million years ago) and its predecessor supercontinent

Rodinia Rodinia (from the Russian родина, ''rodina'', meaning "motherland, birthplace") was a Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic supercontinent that assembled 1.26–0.90 billion years ago (Ga) and broke up 750–633 million years ago (Ma). wer ...

(1.2 billion years ago to 0.9 billion years ago).

Notes and references

External links

Language and Conceptual Systems
at Berkeley.edu, 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Conceptual System Systems Social concepts

See also

Notes and references

Further reading

External links