THE CONCEPT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION. PART 1: DEFINITIONS OF
EXTENSION AND INTENSION
This chapter partly answers the 3rd question of the study: How can the concept of early
childhood education be defined? (Figure 1.) This chapter Part 1 and the next two chapters
Part 2 and Part 3 together answer fully the 3rd question.
The pedagogical phenomenon of early childhood education is an issue that is difficult to
outline. Here early childhood education will be approached through the text content analysis
method, where the analyses of the concept definitions have been in the focus (Härkönen
1996b; 1999; 2003a). This makes new tools available: extension (sphere, space, application
area) and intension (criteria, properties, relations, symbols, qualities) of the concept.
Alonzo Church defines the extension and the intension in the Dictionary of Philosophy:
“The ’extension’ of a concept consists of the things which fall under the concept; or,
according to another definition, the ’extension’ of a concept consists of the concepts which
are subsumed under it (determine subclasses).” ”The ’intension’ of a concept consists of the
qualities or properties which go to make up the concept.” (Runes, ed.1972, 147–148. More
definitions can be found in internet: .)
The Finnish researcher Karvonen (2003) has defined the extension and the intension in a
very understandable way: “The ‘extension’ or an application area. What phenomena in the
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world will suit the concept or fulfill the criteria given in the intension.” ”The ‘intension’ or
content: the criteria or a set of signs that is held valid for a given period of time.” “People
perceive the world through the prism of concepts or, in other words – through the intensions.
People recognize in the world the things that conform to intensions. All that exists in the
world distributes in different ways.” (Translated by the author from the Finnish text: ).