CHAPTER IV.. Higher Forms of Abstraction. Their Nature.

HIGHER FORMS OF ABSTRACTION. THEIR NATURE.

Object of the chapter: What is there in consciousness, when we think by concepts?—The general idea as a psychical state may be reduced to varieties. Investigation of this point: the method pursued.—Reduction to three principal types. Concrete type the most widely distributed. Variation; reply by association of ideas. Visual typographic type: printed words seen and nothing further.—Auditory type; less common.—Interrogations by general propositions: same results. Investigation of cases in which words exist alone in consciousness. Is it possible to think with words only? Rôle of unconscious knowledge. General ideas are intellectual habits.—Natural antagonism between the image and the concept. Its causes.—Are there general ideas or merely general terms? 111