ABSTRACT
Bedrock concepts are often simultaneously the tools of analysis and the object of critical scrutiny. This chapter utilizes bedrock concepts to refer to those concepts not easily decomposable into more fundamental elements, such as self, person, consciousness, meaning or animal. Not all bedrock concepts are ontological; many express epistemological, moral or analytical oppositions: truth and falsity, good and evil, right and wrong, same and different. A special class of bedrock concept is that found in models or theories in both social science and natural science, especially those that rely on a set of axiomatic propositions or foundational theoretical terms. In terms of theory formation the notion of the individual, agentive human self is a bedrock concept for integrational theory. For integrationists, human selves, unlike animals, integrate as autonomous, morally responsible agents, a characteristic that distinguishes their interactions from nonhuman animals, and from other actors such as robots.
