Combining Texts

Ideas for 'works', 'Substance and Individuation in Leibniz' and 'Review of Aron 'Our Knowledge of Universals''

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3 ideas

18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 2. Abstracta by Selection
Cantor says (vaguely) that we abstract numbers from equal sized sets [Hart,WD on Cantor]
     Full Idea: Cantor thought that we abstract a number as something common to all and only those sets any one of which has as many members as any other. ...However one wants to see the logic of the inference. The irony is that set theory lays out this logic.
     From: comment on George Cantor (works [1880]) by William D. Hart - The Evolution of Logic 1
     A reaction: The logic Hart has in mind is the notion of an equivalence relation between sets. This idea sums up the older and more modern concepts of abstraction, the first as psychological, the second as logical (or trying very hard to be!). Cf Idea 9145.
A 'felt familiarity' with universals is more primitive than abstraction [Price,HH]
     Full Idea: A 'felt familiarity' with universals seems to be more primitive than explicit abstraction.
     From: H.H. Price (Review of Aron 'Our Knowledge of Universals' [1946], p.188)
     A reaction: This I take to be part of the 'given' of the abstractionist view, which is quite well described in the first instance by Aristotle. Price says that it is 'pre-verbal'.
Our understanding of 'dog' or 'house' arises from a repeated experience of concomitances [Price,HH]
     Full Idea: Whether you call it inductive or not, our understanding of such a word as 'dog' or 'house' does arise from a repeated experience of concomitances.
     From: H.H. Price (Review of Aron 'Our Knowledge of Universals' [1946], p.191)
     A reaction: Philosophers don't use phrases like that last one any more. How else could we form the concept of 'dog' - if we are actually allowed to discuss the question of concept-formation, instead of just the logic of concepts.