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Single Idea 9078
[filed under theme 18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 1. Abstract Thought
]
Full Idea
The metaphysical inquiry into the nature and composition of what have been called Abstract Ideas, or in other words, of the notions which answer in the mind to classes and to general names, belongs not to Logic, but to a different science.
Gist of Idea
The study of the nature of Abstract Ideas does not belong to logic, but to a different science
Source
John Stuart Mill (System of Logic [1843], 4.2.1)
Book Ref
Mill,John Stuart: 'System of Logic (9th ed, 2 vols)' [Longmans, Green etc 1875], p.195
A Reaction
He doesn't name the science, but the point here seems to be precisely what Frege so vigorously disagreed with. I would say that the state of being 'abstract' has logical aspects, and can be partly described by logic, but that Mill is basically right.
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
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The idea of abstract objects is not ontological; it comes from the epistemological idea of abstraction
[Plantinga]
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9087
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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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