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2 ideas
9611 | 'Abstract' nowadays means outside space and time, not concrete, not physical [Brown,JR] |
Full Idea: The current usage of 'abstract' simply means outside space and time, not concrete, not physical. | |
From: James Robert Brown (Philosophy of Mathematics [1999], Ch. 2) | |
A reaction: This is in contrast to Idea 9609 (the older notion of being abstracted). It seems odd that our ancestors had a theory about where such ideas came from, but modern thinkers have no theory at all. Blame Frege for that. |
9609 | The older sense of 'abstract' is where 'redness' or 'group' is abstracted from particulars [Brown,JR] |
Full Idea: The older sense of 'abstract' applies to universals, where a universal like 'redness' is abstracted from red particulars; it is the one associated with the many. In mathematics, the notion of 'group' or 'vector space' perhaps fits this pattern. | |
From: James Robert Brown (Philosophy of Mathematics [1999], Ch. 2) | |
A reaction: I am currently investigating whether this 'older' concept is in fact dead. It seems to me that it is needed, as part of cognitive science, and as the crucial link between a materialist metaphysic and the world of ideas. |