Ideas from 'Mental Acts: their content and their objects' by Peter Geach [1957], by Theme Structure
[found in 'Mental Acts: Their content and their objects' by Geach,Peter [RKP 1971,0-7100-7058-6]].
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8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 10. Properties as Predicates
8780
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Attributes are functions, not objects; this distinguishes 'square of 2' from 'double of 2'
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9. Objects / F. Identity among Objects / 9. Sameness
11910
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Being 'the same' is meaningless, unless we specify 'the same X'
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15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 3. Abstraction by mind
8775
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A big flea is a small animal, so 'big' and 'small' cannot be acquired by abstraction
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8776
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We cannot learn relations by abstraction, because their converse must be learned too
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17. Mind and Body / B. Behaviourism / 2. Potential Behaviour
2567
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You can't define real mental states in terms of behaviour that never happens
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17. Mind and Body / B. Behaviourism / 4. Behaviourism Critique
2568
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Beliefs aren't tied to particular behaviours
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18. Thought / D. Concepts / 2. Origin of Concepts / a. Origin of concepts
8781
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The mind does not lift concepts from experience; it creates them, and then applies them
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18. Thought / D. Concepts / 5. Concepts and Language / c. Concepts without language
8769
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If someone has aphasia but can still play chess, they clearly have concepts
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18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 3. Abstracta by Ignoring
8770
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'Abstractionism' is acquiring a concept by picking out one experience amongst a group
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18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 8. Abstractionism Critique
8771
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'Or' and 'not' are not to be found in the sensible world, or even in the world of inner experience
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8772
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We can't acquire number-concepts by extracting the number from the things being counted
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8773
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Abstractionists can't explain counting, because it must precede experience of objects
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8774
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The numbers don't exist in nature, so they cannot have been abstracted from there into our languages
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8778
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Blind people can use colour words like 'red' perfectly intelligently
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8777
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If 'black' and 'cat' can be used in the absence of such objects, how can such usage be abstracted?
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8779
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We can form two different abstract concepts that apply to a single unified experience
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