Logic for Situated Action

Abstract

Recognition of the radial structure of concepts, and the role that prototype conceptual structures play in human reasoning, has been a vital innovation within cognitive science during the last half of the twentieth century (Lakoff 1987; Rosch and Lloyd 1978). However, the larger implications of this insight have yet to be fully realized. The concept of a cognitive prototype was generated largely from empirical research, so one way of describing the undeveloped potential, is that the utilization of prototype concepts within active, dynamic reasoning processes has yet to be adequately explored. Such an oversight is understandable, since research strategies that would identify reasoning processes in depth are more difficult to design than studies that document prototypes as a prevalent form of psychological (primarily recall) data.