Single Idea 9792

[catalogued under 18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 3. Abstracta by Ignoring]

Full Idea

The mathematician conducts a study into things in abstraction (after the removal of all perceptible features, such as weight and hardness, leaving only quantity and continuity).

Gist of Idea

Mathematicians study quantity and continuity, and remove the perceptible features of things

Source

Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], 1061a26)

Book Reference

Aristotle: 'Metaphysics', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,Hugh [Penguin 1998], p.325


A Reaction

Frege complained that there is nothing left if you remove the perceptible features, but clearly Aristotle is not an empiricist in this passage, and it is doubtful if even Mill can be totally empirical in his account. We have relations of ideas.