|
9035
|
If judgement of a characteristic is possible, that part of abstraction must be complete [Price,HH]
|
|
Full Idea:
If we are to 'judge' - rightly or not - that this object has a specific characteristic, it would seem that so far as the characteristic is concerned the process of abstraction must already be completed.
|
|
From:
H.H. Price (Thinking and Experience [1953], Ch.III)
|
|
A reaction:
Personally I think Price is right, despite the vicious attack from Geach that looms. We all know the experiences of familiarity, recognition, and identification that go on when see a person or picture. 'What animal is that, in the distance?'
|
|
9034
|
There may be degrees of abstraction which allow recognition by signs, without full concepts [Price,HH]
|
|
Full Idea:
If abstraction is a matter of degree, and the first faint beginnings of it are already present as soon as anything has begun to feel familiar to us, then recognition by means of signs can occur long before the process of abstraction has been completed.
|
|
From:
H.H. Price (Thinking and Experience [1953], Ch.III)
|
|
A reaction:
I like this, even though it is unscientific introspective psychology, for which no proper evidence can be adduced - because it is right. Neuroscience confirms that hardly any mental life has an all-or-nothing form.
|
|
9036
|
There is pre-verbal sign-based abstraction, as when ice actually looks cold [Price,HH]
|
|
Full Idea:
We must still insist that some degree of abstraction, and even a very considerable degree of it, is present in sign-cognition, pre-verbal as it is. ...To us, who are familiar with northern winters, the ice actually looks cold.
|
|
From:
H.H. Price (Thinking and Experience [1953], Ch.IV)
|
|
A reaction:
Price may be in the weak position of doing armchair psychology, but something like his proposal strikes me as correct. I'm much happier with accounts of thought that talk of 'degrees' of an activity, than with all-or-nothing cut-and-dried pictures.
|