Learning and cognition

Question

Try to come up with a definition for the crime of stalking. Why are definitions in general an inadequate way to describe how we reason using concepts and categories

Answer 1

Definitions of crimes often focus on identifying behaviors as criminal or not. But the element that makes stalking a crime is not the behavior itself, but the reasoning and intent behind the behavior. Criminal law is only slightly better at discerning between different intentions and is almost wholly lacking when it concerns the reasoning of the would be criminal. Because we cannot say for certain what someone is thinking (motivation and reasoning), we focus on the behaviors because they are easily observable. Many behaviors that are associated with stalking are also, when motivated by alternative intentions, completely normal behaviors. Checking up on someone that is important to you? You wouldn't be stalking someone who wasn't important to you for some reason. But people often check up on their loved ones and that has nothing to do with stalking. Thus we have to use more flexible reasoning when identifying someone as a stalker, and definitions, by nature, are not flexible. Fluid concepts of what makes stalking different from ordinary behavior are thus necessary to accurately identify a stalker. Concepts and categories are little more then constantly adapting pools of characteristics that happen together, and one person's idea of a stalker might differ from another's due to the difference in the conceptual/categorical pools, but any given concept will see a lot of overlap from one person to another. Someone who has been stalked in the past might more readily place a behavior in the stalking category then someone who has not been stalked.

Also, in addition to the fact that some behaviors which could appear threatening are actually completely innocuous, stalkers, like other criminals, are constantly coming up with new ways to escape identification as stalkers so that they can pursue their crimes, making rigid definitions nearly useless.

If I had to come up with a rigid definition for stalking, I would probably say something like "the surveillance and/or pursuit of someone without their knowledge or permission" You would then have to argue what qualifies as "surveillance" and "pursuit"

This is how the brain is superior to a traditional (non-AI) computer: the brain can deal with shades of gray, whereas a computer demands a rigid definition.

I hope this helps.