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Single Idea 18535

[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 3. Metaphysical Systems ]

Full Idea

A capacity for abstraction is central to our capacity to think about the universe systematically.

Gist of Idea

Without abstraction we couldn't think systematically

Source

John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 09.7)

Book Ref

Heil,John: 'The Universe as We Find It' [OUP 2012], p.195

A Reaction

This strikes me as obvious. We pick out the similarities, and then discuss them, as separate from their bearers. We explain why things have features in common. Some would just say systematic thinking needs universals, but that's less good.

The 43 ideas from 'The Universe as We Find It'

18495 The best philosophers I know are the best people I know [Heil]
18494 Using a technical vocabulary actually prevents discussion of the presuppositions [Heil]
18505 Fundamental ontology aims at the preconditions for any true theory [Heil]
18504 Only particulars exist, and generality is our mode of presentation [Heil]
18506 Questions of explanation should not be confused with metaphyics [Heil]
18507 Substances bear properties, so must be simple, and not consist of further substances [Heil]
18508 Most philosophers now (absurdly) believe that relations fully exist [Heil]
18509 Not all truths need truthmakers - mathematics and logic seem to be just true [Heil]
18510 We need properties to explain how the world works [Heil]
18511 Properties have causal roles which sets can't possibly have [Heil]
18512 Ontology aims to give the fundamental categories of being [Heil]
18513 Emergent properties will need emergent substances to bear them [Heil]
18514 Many wholes can survive replacement of their parts [Heil]
18515 Spatial parts are just regions, but objects depend on and are made up of substantial parts [Heil]
18516 A 'gunky' universe would literally have no parts at all [Heil]
18517 Dunes depend on sand grains, but line segments depend on the whole line [Heil]
18518 Infinite numbers are qualitatively different - they are not just very large numbers [Heil]
18519 If there were infinite electrons, they could vanish without affecting total mass-energy [Heil]
18520 Electrons are treated as particles, but they lose their individuality in relations [Heil]
18522 Categorical properties were introduced by philosophers as actual properties, not if-then properties [Heil]
18523 Are all properties powers, or are there also qualities, or do qualities have the powers? [Heil]
18524 Properties are both qualitative and dispositional - they are powerful qualities [Heil]
18525 Mental abstraction does not make what is abstracted mind-dependent [Heil]
18526 We should focus on actual causings, rather than on laws and causal sequences [Heil]
18527 Probabilistic causation is not a weak type of cause; it is just a probability of there being a cause [Heil]
18531 Philosophers of the past took the truthmaking idea for granted [Heil]
18532 If causal relations are power manifestations, that makes them internal relations [Heil]
18533 In Fa, F may not be a property of a, but a determinable, satisfied by some determinate [Heil]
18534 Truth relates truthbearers to truthmakers [Heil]
18496 If possible worlds are just fictions, they can't be truthmakers for modal judgements [Heil]
18498 Abstract objects wouldn't be very popular without the implicit idea of truthmakers [Heil]
18497 Many reject 'moral realism' because they can't see any truthmakers for normative judgements [Heil]
18500 How could structures be mathematical truthmakers? Maths is just true, without truthmakers [Heil]
18499 Our quantifications only reveal the truths we accept; the ontology and truthmakers are another matter [Heil]
18502 If basic physics has natures, then why not reality itself? That would then found the deepest necessities [Heil]
18501 Maybe the universe is fine-tuned because it had to be, despite plans by God or Nature? [Heil]
18503 You can think of tomatoes without grasping what they are [Heil]
18535 Without abstraction we couldn't think systematically [Heil]
18536 The subject-predicate form reflects reality [Heil]
18538 Non-conscious thought may be unlike conscious thought [Heil]
18537 Linguistic thought is just as imagistic as non-linguistic thought [Heil]
18540 Predicates only match properties at the level of fundamentals [Heil]
18539 Our categories lack the neat arrangement needed for reduction [Heil]