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Single Idea 9135

[from 'Vagueness and Contradiction' by Roy Sorensen, in 5. Theory of Logic / E. Structures of Logic / 4. Variables in Logic ]

Full Idea

As philosophers gradually freed themselves from the assumption that all words are names, ..they realised that generalizations really use variables rather than names of abstract entities.

Gist of Idea

We now see that generalizations use variables rather than abstract entities

Source

Roy Sorensen (Vagueness and Contradiction [2001], 8.4)

Book Reference

Sorensen,Roy: 'Vagueness and Contradiction' [OUP 2004], p.132


A Reaction

This looks like a key thought in trying to understand abstraction - though I don't think you can shake it off that easily. (For all x)(x-is-a-bird then x-has-wings) seems to require a generalised concept of a bird to give a value to the variable.