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Single Idea 10503
[filed under theme 18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 1. Abstract Thought
]
Full Idea
To cognize that which is in individual matter, not as it is in such matter, is to abstract the form from the individual matter that the phantasms represents. Thus we come to a degree of cognition of immaterial things.
Clarification
'Phantasms' are appearances
Gist of Idea
We abstract forms from appearances, and acquire knowledge of immaterial things
Source
Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologicae [1265], Q85 1 Reply)
Book Ref
Aquinas,Thomas: 'Treatise on Human Nature (Summa 1a 75-89)', ed/tr. Pasnau,Robert [Hackett 2002], p.158
A Reaction
This offers abstraction as a kind of inference to best explanation which takes us beyond immediate empirical experience to what is behind it. Aquinas thinks the concepts and explanation are spiritual, but they may be generalities and essences.
The
22 ideas
with the same theme
[general concepts not about concrete objects]:
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9569
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The origin of geometry started in sensation, then moved to calculation, and then to reason
[Proclus]
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10503
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We abstract forms from appearances, and acquire knowledge of immaterial things
[Aquinas]
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10509
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Understanding consists entirely of grasping abstracted species
[Aquinas]
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5827
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A species of thing is an abstract idea, and a word is a sign that refers to the idea
[Locke]
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23648
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First we notice and name attributes ('abstracting'); then we notice that subjects share them ('generalising')
[Reid]
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6925
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The new philosophy thinks of the concrete in a concrete (not a abstract) manner
[Feuerbach]
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9078
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The study of the nature of Abstract Ideas does not belong to logic, but to a different science
[Mill]
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9080
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General conceptions are a necessary preliminary to Induction
[Mill]
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9846
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Defining 'direction' by parallelism doesn't tell you whether direction is a line
[Dummett on Frege]
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9030
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Abstractions can be interpreted dispositionally, as the ability to recognise or imagine an item
[Price,HH]
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9029
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If ideas have to be images, then abstract ideas become a paradoxical problem
[Price,HH]
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11102
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Apply '-ness' or 'class of' to abstract general terms, to get second-level abstract singular terms
[Quine]
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17664
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Each subject has an appropriate level of abstraction
[Armstrong]
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9873
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Abstract terms are acceptable as long as we know how they function linguistically
[Dummett]
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10839
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You can't infer a dog's abstract concepts from its behaviour
[Dummett]
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9086
|
The idea of abstract objects is not ontological; it comes from the epistemological idea of abstraction
[Plantinga]
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9087
|
Theists may see abstract objects as really divine thoughts
[Plantinga]
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8901
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Abstraction is usually explained either by example, or conflation, or abstraction, or negatively
[Lewis]
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9144
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Fine's 'procedural postulationism' uses creative definitions, but avoids abstract ontology
[Fine,K, by Cook/Ebert]
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8299
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Abstractions are non-spatial, or dependent, or derived from concepts
[Lowe]
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9609
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The older sense of 'abstract' is where 'redness' or 'group' is abstracted from particulars
[Brown,JR]
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9611
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'Abstract' nowadays means outside space and time, not concrete, not physical
[Brown,JR]
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