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Ideas for 'Parmenides', 'Introduction to Aesthetics' and 'Against Structural Universals'

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15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 3. Abstraction by mind
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.