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    Abstraction as described presupposes a prior capacity to ... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→The agent intellect makes the quiddity in the sensory representation universal and immaterial through abstraction

    Abstraction as described presupposes a prior capacity to recognize universality, making the process circular (Geach's 'abstraction myth').

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    Reasons For

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    • 1.To abstract 'redness' from red objects, one must already recognize what counts as the same property across instances—requiring prior universality recognition.
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    • 2.Empiricist accounts claim abstraction builds universals from particulars, but this assumes we can identify which particulars are relevantly similar without already possessing the universal.
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    • 3.The vicious circle is genuine: abstraction explains universals only if universals aren't needed to perform the abstraction itself.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.Abstraction may be a developmental process starting with unreflective discrimination, not requiring explicit prior grasp of universality as a concept.
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    • 2.Distinguishing 'recognizing universality' from 'possessing universal concepts' dissolves the circularity—pattern-matching capacity needn't presuppose abstraction theory.
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    • 3.Even if some circularity exists, modest abstraction theories claim only to explain concept refinement, not the origin of all discriminatory ability.
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    Related

    Abstraction may be a developmental process starting with unreflective discrimina...Distinguishing 'recognizing universality' from 'possessing universal concepts' d...Empiricist accounts claim abstraction builds universals from particulars, but th...Even if some circularity exists, modest abstraction theories claim only to expla...
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    The agent intellect makes the quiddity in the sensory representation universal a...The vicious circle is genuine: abstraction explains universals only if universal...To abstract 'redness' from red objects, one must already recognize what counts a...

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