Thought-Culture; Or, Practical Mental TrainingAtkinson, William Walker
Science
Thought-Culture; Or, Practical Mental Training
Atkinson, William Walker
Thought and thinking
The product of Generalization or Conception is called a _Concept_. A
Concept is expressed in a word, or words, called "A Term." A Concept is
more than a mere _word_--it is _a general idea_. And a Term is more than
a mere word--it is _the expression of a general idea_.
A _Concept_ is built up from the processes of Perception, Abstraction,
Comparison and Generalization. We must first perceive; then analyze or
abstract qualities; then compare qualities; then synthesize or classify
according to the result of the comparison of qualities. By perceiving
and comparing the qualities of various individual things, we notice
their points of resemblance and difference--the points wherein they
agree or disagree--wherein they are alike or unlike. Eliminating by
abstraction the points in which they differ and are unlike; and, again
by abstraction, retaining in consideration the points in which they
resemble and are alike; we are able to group, arrange or classify these
"_alike things_" into _a class-idea_ large enough to embrace them all.
This class-idea is what is known as a General Idea or a Concept. This
Concept we give a general name, which is called a Term. In grammar our
particular ideas arising from Percepts are usually denoted by proper
nouns--our general ideas arising from Concepts are usually denoted by
common nouns. Thus "John Smith" (particular; proper noun) and "Man"
(general; common noun). Or "horse" (general; common), and "Dobbin"
(particular; proper).
It will be seen readily that there must be lower and higher concepts.
Every class contains within itself lower classes. And every class is,
itself, but a lower class in a higher one. Thus the high concept of
"animal" may be analyzed into "mammal," which in turn is found to
contain "horse," which in turn may be sub-divided into special kinds of
horses. The concept "plant" may be sub-divided many times before the
concept "rose" is obtained, and the latter is capable of sub-division
into varieties and sub-varieties, until at last a particular flower is
reached. Jevons says: "We classify things together whenever we observe
that they are like each other in any respect and, therefore, think of
them together.... In classifying a collection of objects, we do not
merely put together into groups those which resemble each other, but we
also divide each class into smaller ones in which the resemblance is
more complete. Thus the class of _white substances_ may be divided into
those which are solid and those which are fluid, so that we get the two
minor classes of solid-white, and fluid-white substances. It is
desirable to have names by which to show that one class is contained in
another and, accordingly, we call the class which is divided into two or
more smaller ones, the _Genus_; and the smaller ones into which it is
divided, the _Species_."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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