Single Idea 9068

[catalogued under 15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 5. Generalisation by mind]

Full Idea

Primitive immediate principles ...come about from perception - as in a battle, when a rout has occurred, first one man makes a stand, then another, and then another, until a position of strength is reached.

Gist of Idea

Perception creates primitive immediate principles by building a series of firm concepts

Source

Aristotle (Posterior Analytics [c.327 BCE], 100a12)

Book Reference

Aristotle: 'Posterior Analytics (2nd ed)', ed/tr. Barnes,Jonathan [OUP 1993], p.73


A Reaction

Philosophers don't create imagery like that any more. This empiricist account of how concepts and universals are created is part of a campaign against Plato's theory of forms. [Idea 9069 continues his idea]

Related Idea

Idea 9069 A perception lodging in the soul creates a primitive universal, which becomes generalised [Aristotle]