Part 8 (1/2)

The trouble does not end here. Concepts not only include the general idea of _things_, but also the general idea of the _qualities of things_. Thus sweetness, hardness, courage, and energy are concepts, but we cannot form a mental image of them by themselves. We may picture a sweet _thing_, but not sweetness itself. So you see that a concept is a purely abstract mental idea--a symbol--akin to the figures 1, 2, 3, etc., and used in the same way. They _stand_ for general cla.s.ses of things. A ”term” is the verbal and written expression of the general idea or concept. The student is requested to fix these distinctions in his mind, so as to render further understanding of them easy.

CHAPTER XXI.

Conception.

The process of conception has been well defined by Gordy as ”that act of mind by which it forms an idea of a cla.s.s; or that act of the mind that enables us to use general names intelligently.” He adds: ”It is, of course, understood that I am using the word 'cla.s.s' to denote an indefinite number of individuals that resemble each other in certain particulars.”

PERCEPTION.

The first step in conception, as we have seen, is that of perception. It is readily perceived that the character of our intellectual processes depends materially upon the variety, clearness, and accuracy of our perceptions. Therefore, again, we would refer our students to the chapter in which we have stated the importance of clear perception.

MEMORY.

The future steps of conception depend materially upon the clearness of the memory, as we can cla.s.sify objects only by remembering their qualities beyond the immediate moment of actual, original perception.

Therefore, the memory should be strengthened for this as well as other objects.

ABSTRACTION.

The second step in conception is that of the mental abstraction of qualities from the observed thing. That is, we must perceive and then mentally _set aside_ the observed qualities of the thing. For instance, man first perceived the existence of certain qualities in things. He found that a certain number of things possessed some of these qualities in common, while others possessed other qualities in the same way, and thus arose cla.s.sification from comparison. But both comparison and cla.s.sification are possible only by abstraction, or _the perception of the quality as a ”thing”_; thus, the abstraction of the idea of the quality of _sweetness_ from the idea of sugar. Sweetness is a _quality_ rather than a thing itself. It is something possessed by sugar which helps to make sugar what it is.

Color, shape, size, mental qualities, habits of action--these are some of the qualities first observed in things and abstracted from them in thought. Redness, sweetness, hardness, softness, largeness, smallness, fragrance, swiftness, slowness, fierceness, gentleness, warmness, coldness, etc.--these are abstracted qualities of things. Of course these qualities are really never divorced from things, but the mind divorces them in order to make thinking easier. An authority says: ”Animals are incapable of making abstractions, and that is the reason why they cannot develop formal thought. * * * Abstract thought is identical with rational thought, which is the characteristic feature of the thought of speaking beings. This is the reason why abstract thought is upon earth the exclusive property of man, and why brutes are incapable of abstract thought. The process of naming is the mechanism of abstraction, for names establish the mental independence of the objects named.”

The processes of abstraction depend upon attention--concentrated attention. Attention directed to the qualities of a thing tends to abstract the qualities in thought from the thing itself. Mill says: ”Abstraction is primarily the result of attention.” Hamilton says: ”Attention and abstraction are only the same process viewed in different relations.” Cultivation of the power of abstraction means princ.i.p.ally cultivation of attention. Any mental activity which tends toward _a.n.a.lysis_ or separation of a thing into its parts, qualities, or elements will serve to cultivate and develop the power of abstraction.

The habit of converting _qualities_ into concepts is acquired by _transforming adjective terms into their corresponding noun terms_. For instance, a piece of colored candy possesses the _qualities_ of being round, hard, red, sweet, etc. Transforming these adjective qualities into noun terms we have the _concepts_ of roundness, hardness, redness, and sweetness, respectively.

COMPARISON.

The third step in conception is that of _comparison_, in which the qualities of several things are compared or examined for likenesses and differences. We find many qualities in which the several things differ, and a few in which there is a likeness. Cla.s.ses are formed from resemblances or likenesses, while individuals are separated from apparent cla.s.ses by detection of differences. Finally, it is found that separate things, while having many points of difference which indicate their individuality, nevertheless have a few points of likeness which indicate that they belong to the same general family or cla.s.s. The detection of likenesses and differences in the qualities of various things is an important mental process. Many of the higher thought processes depend largely upon the ability to compare things properly.

The development of attention and perception tends to develop the power of comparison.

CLa.s.sIFICATION OR GENERALIZATION.

The fourth step in conception is that of cla.s.sification or generalization, whereby we place individual things in a mental bundle or cla.s.s, and then this bundle in company with other bundles into a higher cla.s.s, and so on. Thus we group all the individual small birds having certain characteristics into a species, then several related species into a larger family, and this into a still larger, until finally we group all the bird families into the great family which we call ”birds”

and of which the simple term ”bird” expresses the general concept.

Jevons says: ”We cla.s.sify things together whenever we observe that they are like each other in any respect, and therefore think of them together. In cla.s.sifying a collection of objects, we do not merely put together into groups those which resemble each other, but we also divide each cla.s.s into smaller ones in which the resemblance is more complete.

Thus the cla.s.s of _white substances_ may be divided into those which are solid, and those which are fluid, so that we get the two minor cla.s.ses of solid-white and fluid-white substances. It is desirable to have names by which to show that one cla.s.s is contained in another, and, accordingly, we call the cla.s.s which is divided into two or more smaller ones the _genus_, and the smaller ones into which it is divided, the _species_.”

Every _species_ is a small family of the individuals composing it, and at the same time is an individual species of the genus just above it; the _genus_, in turn, is a family of several species, and at the same time an individual genus in the greater family or genus above it.