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15450 | Maybe abstraction is just mereological subtraction [Lewis] |
Full Idea: We could say that abstraction is just mereological subtraction of universals. | |
From: David Lewis (Against Structural Universals [1986], 'Uninstantiated') | |
A reaction: This only works, of course, for the theories that complex universals have simpler universals as 'parts'. This is just a passing surmise. I take it that abstraction only works for a thing whose unity survives the abstraction. |