Concept

What is a concept?

A concept is

“a cognitive unit of meaning — an abstract idea or a mental symbol sometimes defined as a “unit of knowledge,” built from other units which act as a concept's characteristics. A concept is typically associated with a corresponding representation in a language such as a word.”

Today, in computer and information science contexts, the term “concept” is often used in loosely defined and inconsistent ways.1) Smith, Barry. Beyond Concepts: Ontology as Reality Representation. Proceedings of the International Conference on Formal Ontology and Information Systems, p73-84, 2004.