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Thick concept

Definition

In philosophy, a thick concept is a kind of concept that both has a significant degree of descriptive content and is evaluatively loaded. Paradigmatic examples are various virtues and vices such as courage, cruelty, truthfulness and kindness. Courage for example, may be given a rough characterization in descriptive terms as '...opposing danger to promote a valued end'. At the same time, characterizing someone as courageous typically involves expressing an attitude of esteem or a "pro-attitude", or a good-making quality – i.e. an evaluative statement.

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