On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme
E289483
"On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme" is a highly influential 1974 philosophical essay by Donald Davidson that critiques the distinction between conceptual schemes and empirical content, challenging forms of relativism in the philosophy of language and mind.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2709473 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme Context triple: [Donald Davidson, notableWork, On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme]
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A.
The Logical Structure of the World
The Logical Structure of the World is Rudolf Carnap’s seminal 1928 work in which he develops a rigorous, formal reconstruction of all scientific concepts from a phenomenalist basis, serving as a foundational text of logical positivism.
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B.
Individuals: An Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics
Individuals: An Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics is a seminal 1959 work of analytic philosophy that develops a systematic account of our conceptual scheme for thinking about objects, persons, and their identity over time.
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C.
Possible Worlds and Other Essays
Possible Worlds and Other Essays is a collection of influential scientific and philosophical essays by geneticist and evolutionary biologist J. B. S. Haldane, exploring topics in biology, evolution, and the nature of science.
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D.
Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics is a foundational philosophical work by Immanuel Kant that concisely outlines and defends the key ideas of his critical philosophy, especially those developed more fully in the Critique of Pure Reason.
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E.
On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason
On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason is a foundational philosophical treatise by Arthur Schopenhauer that analyzes the different ways in which the principle of sufficient reason structures human knowledge and experience.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme Target entity description: "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme" is a highly influential 1974 philosophical essay by Donald Davidson that critiques the distinction between conceptual schemes and empirical content, challenging forms of relativism in the philosophy of language and mind.
-
A.
The Logical Structure of the World
The Logical Structure of the World is Rudolf Carnap’s seminal 1928 work in which he develops a rigorous, formal reconstruction of all scientific concepts from a phenomenalist basis, serving as a foundational text of logical positivism.
-
B.
Individuals: An Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics
Individuals: An Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics is a seminal 1959 work of analytic philosophy that develops a systematic account of our conceptual scheme for thinking about objects, persons, and their identity over time.
-
C.
Possible Worlds and Other Essays
Possible Worlds and Other Essays is a collection of influential scientific and philosophical essays by geneticist and evolutionary biologist J. B. S. Haldane, exploring topics in biology, evolution, and the nature of science.
-
D.
Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics
Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics is a foundational philosophical work by Immanuel Kant that concisely outlines and defends the key ideas of his critical philosophy, especially those developed more fully in the Critique of Pure Reason.
-
E.
On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason
On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason is a foundational philosophical treatise by Arthur Schopenhauer that analyzes the different ways in which the principle of sufficient reason structures human knowledge and experience.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
academic article
ⓘ
philosophical essay ⓘ |
| arguesAgainst |
conceptual relativism
ⓘ
the dualism of scheme and empirical content ⓘ the possibility of untranslatable languages ⓘ |
| author | Donald Davidson ⓘ |
| centralThesis |
relativism based on conceptual schemes is misguided
ⓘ
the idea of radically different, untranslatable conceptual schemes is untenable ⓘ the scheme-content distinction is incoherent ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| critiques |
conceptual relativism
ⓘ
scheme-content dualism ⓘ the idea of untranslatable conceptual schemes ⓘ the third dogma of empiricism ⓘ |
| describedAs | highly influential ⓘ |
| discusses |
the nature of interpretation across cultures
ⓘ
the possibility of conceptual incommensurability ⓘ the relation between language and world ⓘ |
| field |
analytic philosophy
ⓘ
epistemology ⓘ philosophy of language ⓘ |
| genre | philosophical critique ⓘ |
| influenced |
contemporary analytic philosophy
ⓘ
debates about relativism ⓘ philosophy of interpretation ⓘ theories of meaning ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Immanuel Kant
ⓘ
Ludwig Wittgenstein ⓘ Willard Van Orman Quine ⓘ
surface form:
W. V. O. Quine
Willard Van Orman Quine ⓘ logical empiricism ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
conceptual schemes
ⓘ
incommensurability ⓘ interpretation ⓘ meaning ⓘ philosophy of language ⓘ philosophy of mind ⓘ relativism ⓘ scheme-content distinction ⓘ translation ⓘ truth ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition | Anglo-American philosophy ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1974 ⓘ |
| publishedInDecade | 1970s ⓘ |
| supports |
a unified conception of truth
ⓘ
the principle of charity in interpretation ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme Description of subject: "On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme" is a highly influential 1974 philosophical essay by Donald Davidson that critiques the distinction between conceptual schemes and empirical content, challenging forms of relativism in the philosophy of language and mind.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.