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Single Idea 9873
[filed under theme 18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 1. Abstract Thought
]
Full Idea
To recognise abstract terms as perfectly proper items of a vocabulary depends upon allowing that all that is necessary for the lawful introduction of a range of expressions into the language is a coherent account of how they are to function in sentences.
Gist of Idea
Abstract terms are acceptable as long as we know how they function linguistically
Source
Michael Dummett (Frege philosophy of mathematics [1991], Ch.16)
Book Ref
Dummett,Michael: 'Frege: philosophy of mathematics' [Duckworth 1991], p.208
A Reaction
Why can't the 'coherent account' of the sentences include the fact that there must be something there for the terms to refer to? How else are we to eliminate nonsense words which obey good syntactical rules? Cf. Idea 9872.
Related Idea
Idea 9872
Abstract objects need the context principle, since they can't be encountered directly [Dummett]
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
|
Abstraction is usually explained either by example, or conflation, or abstraction, or negatively
[Lewis]
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9144
|
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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