Acquiring generic knowledge

Generic knowledge is knowledge about kinds of things. The existence of generic knowledge poses a difficult acquisition problem: how do we acquire knowledge about kinds of things if we have experience with only a limited number of examples of the kinds in question? The problem is exacerbated by the fact that we sometimes acquire generic knowledge on the basis of experience with only a single instance of the kind. In this review, it is argued that there is a formal system for common-sense conception that underlies the acquisition of an important class of generic knowledge. Generic knowledge acquired through the use of the formal system represents the stable knowledge we have about kinds of things. It complements, rather than replaces, the statistical and causal (mechanistic) knowledge acquired through the use of other learning mechanisms.