The evolution of general ideasRibot, Th. (Théodule)
Science
The evolution of general ideas
Ribot, Th. (Théodule)
Abstraction; Imagination
[77] Wundt (_Logik_, I., pp. 113 et seq.) gives what he regards as a
complete classification of concepts, but it does not correspond with our
design. It may be summarised as follows. Four classes: I. Identical or
equivalent concepts; Aristotle = Alexander’s tutor. II. Subordinate or
superordinate concepts; mammals and vertebrates, etc. III. Co-ordinated
concepts, comprising five species: i. Disjunctive concepts; sound and
noise, French and German, etc. They are subordinate to a larger concept.
ii. Correlative concepts, with reciprocal relations; men and women,
mountain and valley. iii. Contrary concepts; high and low, good and
bad. iv. Contingent concepts; such, i. e., as touch, with very minute,
perceptible differences; this highly important category comprises
numbers. v. Interferent concepts, which coincide or partially cross;
negro and slave, rectangle and parallelogram. IV. Concepts which are
interdependent; etc., space and movement, crime and punishment, demand
and supply, labor and wages. This table may suit the logician but not
the psychologist, because it presents the concepts under what may be
termed the static order, i. e., ready formed: we, on the other hand,
are considering them as dynamic, i. e., in their becoming and order of
genesis.
[78] For details, with quotations in point, consult Agassiz: _De
l’espèce_, Chap. III., and E. Perrier, _La Philosophie zoologique avant
Darwin_, Chap. II.
[79] Agassiz, _op. cit._, gives a summary of the successive improvements.
They are of interest not merely to the zoölogist, but also from our own
point of view, as showing the increasing preponderance of analysis, and
search for fundamental characteristics, to the exclusion of the external
resemblances which served as basis for the more primitive classifications.
[80] Under the heading “Observations on General Terms” the _American
Journal of Psychology_, III. i, p. 144 (Jan., 1890) gives the results of
an investigation conducted upon 113 school children aged 13 to 18. The
words _being_, _the infinite_, _literature_, _abstraction_, _number_,
_play_, _coldness_, _horror_, etc., were written down, and a few moments
were given the pupils to transcribe their impressions in each case.
The summarised answers are not devoid of interest, but the object of the
inquiry is evidently very different from our own.
[81] The word “law” was purposely chosen for its ambiguity; physical
laws, moral or social laws. The immense majority of answers were in the
juristic sense. Ex., Code, Law of the Twelve Tables, a judge, woman with
scales, etc.
[82] For the word _infinity_, those who fall under this type see the
printed word, or the mathematical sign ∞.
[83] It should be noted that he lived among these animals and
experimented with them almost daily.
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