The evolution of general ideasRibot, Th. (Théodule)
Science
The evolution of general ideas
Ribot, Th. (Théodule)
Abstraction; Imagination
The concrete type appears to be the most widely distributed; it obtains
almost to exclusion among women, artists, and all who have not the habit
of scientific abstraction. I have selected a few examples from among the
many observations belonging to this type.
A painter.—_Cause_: nothing. _Relation_: relations of terms; recital,
written report. _Law_: judges in red robes. _Number_: vague. _Color_:
contrast between green of plant, and red of drapery. _Form_: a round
block, a woman’s shoulder. _Sound_: a murmur. _Dog_: ears of a dog
running. _Animal_: vague collection, as in certain Dutch pictures.
_Force_: hits out with his fists. _Goodness_: his young mother, seen
vaguely. _Time_: Saturn with his scythe. _Infinity_: a black hole.
A woman.—_Cause_: I had been the cause of her son’s success. _Law_:
the government is bad. _Color_: sees an impressionist picture by her
son. _Form_: names a beautiful person. _Goodness and Virtue_: names
two people who each have this quality. _Force_: sees men fighting.
_Relation_: social relations between husband and wife. _Justice_: sees an
audience-hall and judges. _Dog_: sees a dog that bit one of her parents.
_Infinity_: nothing. _Time_: a metronome.
These two interrogatories are complete. I might proceed by another
method: that of taking each general term (law, cause, number, etc.) and
quoting all the answers received, among which many would be identical.
Such an enumeration would be long and superfluous: we cannot, however,
neglect a few of the particulars. For the word _cause_, several persons
(women, artists, people in society) replied “_cause célèbre_,” “_procès
célèbre_,” for the most part mentioning one only, and that some recent
trial. At first this reply annoyed me, and appeared to be useless for
my inquiry. Later, on the other hand, I felt it to be instructive,
because it characterises better than any description the type which I
have denoted as concrete, and the particular turn of this kind of mind,
in which the abstract sense does not present itself, at any rate at the
beginning.
I may also note two answers given me immediately by a celebrated
painter:—_Number_: I see many brilliant points. _Law_: I see parallel
lines. (Is this the unconscious idea of levelling by the law?)
The terms _goodness_ and _virtue_ suggested answers which are easily
summarised: they fall into two categories. (1) Nothing; this answer does
not belong to the concrete type; (2) a definite person, who was always
named and who thus becomes the incarnation, the concrete representation.
Nearly all the images evoked belong to the visual sense; the word
_force_, however, most frequently called up pure muscular images, or
the same accompanied by a vague visual representation. Example—Seeing
somebody lifting a weight; I vaguely see something pulling; a weight
suspended by a ring; a string drawing on a nail; pressure of my fist in a
fluid; the Marshal of Saxony breaking an _écu_ of six pounds, etc.
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