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Single Idea 9030
[filed under theme 18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 1. Abstract Thought
]
Full Idea
An abstract idea may have a dispositional as well as an occurrent interpretation. ..A man who possesses the concept Dog, when he is actually perceiving a dog can recognize that it is one, and can think about dogs when he is not perceiving any dog.
Gist of Idea
Abstractions can be interpreted dispositionally, as the ability to recognise or imagine an item
Source
H.H. Price (Thinking and Experience [1953], Ch.IX)
Book Ref
Price,H.H.: 'Thinking and Experience' [Hutchinson 1953], p.276
A Reaction
Ryle had just popularised the 'dispositional' account of mental events. Price is obviously right. The man may also be able to use the word 'dog' in sentences, but presumably dogs recognise dogs, and probably dream about dogs too.
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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