Single Idea 9088

[catalogued under 15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 5. Generalisation by mind]

Full Idea

A skill arises when from the many cases of thinking in experience a single general assumption is formed in connection with similar things.

Gist of Idea

Skill comes from a general assumption obtained from thinking about similar things

Source

Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], 0981a04)

Book Reference

Aristotle: 'Metaphysics', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,Hugh [Penguin 1998], p.4


A Reaction

[He gives the administration of appropriate medicine as the example of a 'skill'] Note that it is 'thinking in' experience, rather than just the raw having of experiences. This is the intellectualist version of empirical abstractionism. I like it.