Koncept – abstraktní klíč k porozumění různým způsobům myšlení: demonstrované na příkladu přístupu ke zvířatům

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the theory of concept, which is connected with various ways of human understanding of the world. It is a well-known fact that the so called indigenous peoples perceive the world differently than the present-day European and Western populations. The reason why it is happening is the existence of a different concept. The key phenomenon, when creating a concept, is the way how the knowledge of the world is received, or the use of particular means/tools for the understanding of the world (reason, mind or consciousness and perception), which lead to a certain interpretation of reality. These means/tools create systems of knowledge (by producing imaginations, thoughts, dreams, visions, feelings), which determine what the world looks like – how it is seen and how people behave in it. In the case of the so called indigenous peoples, it is well-known that the knowledge of the world is based on the use of consciousness, e.g. by means of dreams, visions or reading non-ordinary experience. There is a significant difference in the attitude to the knowledge of the world as it is observed in the current European and Western culture, where the only valid way of understanding the world is rationalism, or the use of reason. Ethnographic literature clearly documents that people who live in a close connection with nature (the so called indigenous peoples) have different concepts about what nature or a particular animal is. In this paper, I present ways of animal perceptions, which can have some resemblance or difference, according to the main subsistence strategies (hunter – gatherers, herdsmen and farmers).