more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Boethius argued that universals can be successfully isolated by abstraction, even if they do not exist as separate entities in the world.
Gist of Idea
If universals are not separate, we can isolate them by abstraction
Source
report of Boethius (Second Commentary on 'Isagoge' [c.517]) by Claude Panaccio - Medieval Problem of Universals 'Sources'
Book Ref
'Routledge Companion to Metaphysics', ed/tr. Le Poidevin/Simons etc [Routledge 2012], p.49
A Reaction
Personally I rather like this unfashionable view. I can't think of any other plausible explanation, unless it is a less conscious psychological process of labelling. Boethius's idea led to medieval 'immanent realism'.
| 15035 | If universals are not separate, we can isolate them by abstraction [Boethius, by Panaccio] |
| 22132 | Species and genera are individual concepts which naturally signify many individuals [William of Ockham] |
| 23651 | Universals are not objects of sense and cannot be imagined - but can be conceived [Reid] |
| 5408 | If we identify whiteness with a thought, we can never think of it twice; whiteness is the object of a thought [Russell] |
| 18715 | Using 'green' is a commitment to future usage of 'green' [Wittgenstein] |
| 5312 | A child first sees objects as distinct, and later as members of groups [Wilson,EO] |
| 4938 | Prior to language, concepts are universals created by self-mapping of brain activity [Edelman/Tononi] |