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Single Idea 8778
[filed under theme 18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 8. Abstractionism Critique
]
Full Idea
It is not true that men born blind can form no colour-concepts; a man born blind can use the word 'red' with a considerable measure of intelligence; he can show a practical grasp of the logic of the word.
Gist of Idea
Blind people can use colour words like 'red' perfectly intelligently
Source
Peter Geach (Mental Acts: their content and their objects [1957], §10)
Book Ref
Geach,Peter: 'Mental Acts: Their content and their objects' [RKP 1971], p.35
A Reaction
Weak. It is obvious that they pick up the word 'red' from the usage of sighted people, and the usage of the word doesn't guarantee a grasp of the concept, as when non-mathematicians refer to 'calculus'. Compare Idea 7377 and Idea 7866.
Related Ideas
Idea 7377
Mary learns when she sees colour, so her complete physical information had missed something [Jackson]
Idea 7866
Mary acquires new concepts; she previously thought about the same property using material concepts [Papineau]
The
28 ideas
with the same theme
[reasons to reject the abstractionist explanation]:
9075
|
If health happened to be white, the science of health would not study whiteness
[Aristotle]
|
15385
|
Abelard's problem is the purely singular aspects of things won't account for abstraction
[Panaccio on Abelard]
|
9096
|
The mind must produce by its own power an image of the individual species
[Aquinas]
|
8638
|
Thomae's idea of abstract from peculiarities gives a general concept, and leaves the peculiarities
[Frege on Thomae]
|
9979
|
Dedekind has a conception of abstraction which is not psychologistic
[Dedekind, by Tait]
|
11846
|
If we abstract the difference between two houses, they don't become the same house
[Frege]
|
9588
|
Number-abstraction somehow makes things identical without changing them!
[Frege]
|
5816
|
Frege said concepts were abstract entities, not mental entities
[Frege, by Putnam]
|
9819
|
Psychologism blunders in focusing on concept-formation instead of delineating the concepts
[Dummett on Husserl]
|
9851
|
Husserl wanted to keep a shadowy remnant of abstracted objects, to correlate them
[Dummett on Husserl]
|
10733
|
The abstractionist cannot explain 'some' and 'not'
[Geach]
|
10734
|
Only a judgement can distinguish 'striking' from 'being struck'
[Geach]
|
8771
|
'Or' and 'not' are not to be found in the sensible world, or even in the world of inner experience
[Geach]
|
8772
|
We can't acquire number-concepts by extracting the number from the things being counted
[Geach]
|
8773
|
Abstractionists can't explain counting, because it must precede experience of objects
[Geach]
|
8774
|
The numbers don't exist in nature, so they cannot have been abstracted from there into our languages
[Geach]
|
8778
|
Blind people can use colour words like 'red' perfectly intelligently
[Geach]
|
8777
|
If 'black' and 'cat' can be used in the absence of such objects, how can such usage be abstracted?
[Geach]
|
8779
|
We can form two different abstract concepts that apply to a single unified experience
[Geach]
|
9833
|
To abstract from spoons (to get the same number as the forks), the spoons must be indistinguishable too
[Dummett]
|
8165
|
To 'abstract from' is a logical process, as opposed to the old mental view
[Dummett]
|
16289
|
We can't account for an abstraction as 'from' something if the something doesn't exist
[Lewis]
|
9074
|
Abstraction cannot produce the concept of a 'game', as there is no one common feature
[Barnes,J]
|
9073
|
Abstraction from an ambiguous concept like 'mole' will define them as the same
[Barnes,J]
|
9072
|
Defining concepts by abstractions will collect together far too many attributes from entities
[Barnes,J]
|
9146
|
After abstraction all numbers seem identical, so only 0 and 1 will exist!
[Fine,K]
|
9972
|
Why should abstraction from two equipollent sets lead to the same set of 'pure units'?
[Tait]
|
9980
|
If abstraction produces power sets, their identity should imply identity of the originals
[Tait]
|