Topoi 20 (2):131-148 (
2001)
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Abstract
Human cognitive acts are directed towards entities of a wide range of different types. What follows is a new proposal for bringing order into this typological clutter. A categorial scheme for the objects
of human cognition should be (1) critical and realistic. Cognitive subjects are liable to error, even to systematic error of the sort that is manifested by believers in the Pantheon of Olympian gods.
Thus not all putative object-directed acts should be recognized as having objects of their own.
What follows is a categorial scheme that is both critically realistic and comprehensive. Thus it
enjoys some of the benefits of linguistic idealism and physicalism, without (or so it is hoped) the
corresponding disadvantages of each.The starting point for our categorial scheme is the concept of extended entity.