Selecting is not abstracting

Barsalou's hypothesis that mental representations are constructed by select ing parts of percepts encounters the same difficulties as other empiricist theories: They cannot explain concepts for which instances do not share per ceptible features (e.g., furniture) or for which there are no relevant perc epts (e.g., the end of time). Barsalou's attempt to reduce falsity to faile d pattern matching is nn elementary error, and the generativity of his simu lators cannot be attained without nonterminal symbols. There is not now, an d there never was, any reason to be interested in empiricist theories of kn owledge. Abstraction is a fundamental aspect of human cognition.