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2 ideas
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. |
12661 | The different types of resemblance don't resemble one another [Fodor] |
Full Idea: The ways in which different kinds of thing are similar to one another aren't, in general, similar to one another. | |
From: Jerry A. Fodor (LOT 2 [2008], Ch.5.4) | |
A reaction: Nice, but I think one would say that they lack similarity at the level of primary thought, but have obvious similarity (as concept-connectors) at the level of meta-thought. |