Single Idea 10645

[catalogued under 18. Thought / D. Concepts / 2. Origin of Concepts / a. Origin of concepts]

Full Idea

We have three different ways in which we arrive at concepts or universals: there is a clarification, where we have a ready-made concept and define it; we have a combination (where a definition creates a concept); and an experience can lead to a habit.

Gist of Idea

We reach concepts by clarification, or by definition, or by habitual experience

Source

H.H. Price (Review of Aron 'Our Knowledge of Universals' [1946], p.190)

Book Reference

-: 'Philosophy' [-], p.190


A Reaction

[very compressed] He cites Russell as calling the third one a 'condensed induction'. There seems to an intellectualist and non-intellectualist strand in the abstractionist tradition.