According to the Participation Theory, (acquired and non-acquired) abilities are to be conceived as states of the agent in the context of recognizing and/or solving problems. Abilities are not processes or events; the effective presence of a given ability is a state of the agent, which state may be the result of earlier processes or events, and from which, of course, successful events or processes of problem recognition and/or solution may follow. An ability that makes recognizing and/or solving a given problem possible is logically a priori in the situation of recognizing and/or solving the problem. That is, the ability necessary for recognizing and/or solving a problem must already be present in the agent in such a way that makes recognizing and/or solving the problem possible. Acquired abilities (i.e., abilities beyond what an agent possesses without learning) are obtained communicatively. That is, acquired abilities are obtained via (or as a result of) communication.