Full Idea
If abstraction is a matter of degree, and the first faint beginnings of it are already present as soon as anything has begun to feel familiar to us, then recognition by means of signs can occur long before the process of abstraction has been completed.
Gist of Idea
There may be degrees of abstraction which allow recognition by signs, without full concepts
Source
H.H. Price (Thinking and Experience [1953], Ch.III)
Book Reference
Price,H.H.: 'Thinking and Experience' [Hutchinson 1953], p.75
A Reaction
I like this, even though it is unscientific introspective psychology, for which no proper evidence can be adduced - because it is right. Neuroscience confirms that hardly any mental life has an all-or-nothing form.