THE USE OF CONCEPTS
Having observed the several steps or stages of a concept, let us now
consider the use and misuse of the latter. At first glance it would
appear difficult to misuse a concept, but a little consideration will
show that people very commonly fall into error regarding their concepts.
For instance, a child perceives a horse, a cow or a sheep and hears its
elders apply the term "_animal_" to it. This term is perfectly correct,
although symbolizing only a very general classification or
generalization. But, the child knowing nothing of the more limited and
detailed classification begins to generalize regarding the animal. To
it, accordingly, an "animal" is identical with the dog or the cow, the
sheep or the horse, as the case may be, and when the term is used the
child thinks that _all animals_ are similar to the particular animal
seen. Later on, when it hears the term "animal" applied to a totally
different looking creature, it thinks that a mistake has been made and
a state of confusion occurs. Or, even when a term is applied within
narrower limits, the same trouble occurs. The child may hear the term
"dog" applied to a mastiff, and it accordingly forms a concept of _dog_
identical with the qualities and attributes of the mastiff. Later,
hearing the same term applied to a toy-terrier, it becomes indignant and
cries out that the latter is no "dog" but is something entirely
different. It is not until the child becomes acquainted with the fact
that there are many kinds of creatures in the general category of "dog"
that the latter term becomes fully understood and its appropriate
concept is intelligently formed. Thus we see the importance of the step
of Presentation.
In the same way the child might imagine that because some particular
"man" had red hair and long whiskers, _all men_ were red-haired and
long-whiskered. Such a child would always form the concept of "man" as a
creature possessed of the personal qualities just mentioned. As a writer
once said, readers of current French literature might imagine that all
Englishmen were short, dumpy, red-cheeked and irascible, and that all
Englishwomen had great teeth and enormous feet; also that readers of
English literature might imagine that all Frenchmen were like monkeys,
and all Frenchwomen were sad coquettes. In the same way many American
young people believe that all Englishmen say "Don't you know" and all
Englishwomen constantly ejaculate: "Fancy!" Also that every Englishman
wears a monocle. In the same way, the young English person, from reading
the cheap novels of his own country, might well form the concept of all
Americans as long-legged, chin-whiskered and big-nosed, saying "Waal, I
want to know;" "I reckon;" and "Du tell;" while they tilted themselves
back in a chair with their feet on the mantelpiece. The concept of a
Western man, entertained by the average Eastern person who has never
traveled further West than Buffalo, is equally amusing. In the same way,
we have known Western people who formed a concept of Boston people as
partaking of a steady and continuous diet of baked beans and studiously
reading Browning and Emerson between these meals.
Halleck says: "A certain Norwegian child ten years old had the quality
_white_ firmly imbedded in his concept _man_. Happening one day to see a
negro for the first time, the child refused to call him a man until the
negro's other qualities compelled the child to revise his concept and to
eliminate whiteness. If that child should ever see an Indian or a
Chinaman, the concept would undergo still further revision. A girl of
six, reared with an intemperate father and brothers, had the quality of
_drunkenness_ firmly fixed in her concept of _man_. A certain boy kept,
until the age of eleven, _trustworthiness_ in his concept of man.
Another boy, until late in his teens thought that man was a creature who
did wrong not from determination but from ignorance, that any man would
change his course to the right path if he could but understand that he
was going wrong. Happening one day to hear of a wealthy man who was
neglecting to provide comforts for his aged mother in her last sickness,
the boy concluded that the man did not know his mother's condition. When
he informed the man, the boy was told to mind his own business. The same
day he heard of some politicians who had intentionally cheated the city
in letting a contract and he immediately revised his concept. It must be
borne in mind that most of our concepts are subject to change during our
entire life; that at first they are made only in a tentative way; that
experience may show us, at any time, that they have been erroneously
formed, that we have, abstracted too little or too much, made this class
too wide or too narrow, or that here a quality must be added or there
one taken away."
Let us now consider the mental processes involved in the formation and
use of a concept. We have first, as we have seen, the presentation of
the crude material from which the concept must be formed. Our attention
being attracted to or directed toward an object, we notice its qualities
and properties. Then we begin a process of comparison of the object
perceived or of our perception of it. We compare the object with other
objects or ideas in our mind, noting similarities and differences and
thereby leading towards classification with similar objects and opposed
dissimilar ones. The greater the range of other objects previously
perceived, the greater will be the number of relations established
between the new object or idea and others. As we advance in experience
and knowledge, the web of related objects and ideas becomes more
intricate and complex. The relations attaching to the child's concept of
horse is very much simpler than the concept of the experienced adult.
Then we pass on to the step of analysis, in which we separate the
qualities of the object and consider them in detail. The act of
abstraction is an analytical process. Then we pass on to the step of
synthesis, in which we unite the materials gathered by comparison and
analysis, and thus form a general idea or concept regarding the object.
In this process we combine the various qualities discerned by comparison
and analysis, and grouping them together as in a bundle, we tie them
together with the string of synthesis and thus have a true general
conception. Thus from the first general conception of _horse_ as a
simple thing, we notice first that the animal has certain qualities
lacking in other things and certain others similar to other things; then
we analyze the various qualities of the horse, recognized through
comparison, until we have a clear and distinct idea of the various
parts, qualities and properties of the horse; then we synthesize, and
joining together these various conceptions of the said qualities, we at
last form a clear general concept of _the horse as he is_, with all his
qualities. Of course, if we later discover other qualities attached to
the horse, we add these to our general synthesized concept--our concept
of _horse_ is enlarged.
Of course these various steps in the formation and use of a concept are
not realized as distinct acts in the consciousness, for the processes
are largely instinctive and subconscious, particularly in the case of
the experienced individual. The subconscious, or habit mind, usually
attends to these details for us, except in instances in which we
deliberately apply the will to the task, as in cases of close study, in
which we take the process from the region of the involuntary and place
it in the voluntary category. So closely related and blended are these
various steps of the process, that some authorities have disputed
vigorously upon the question as to which of the two steps, comparison
or analysis, precedes the other. Some have claimed that analysis must
precede comparison, else how could one compare without having first
analyzed the things to be compared. Others hold that comparison must
precede analysis, else how could one note a quality unless he had his
attention drawn to it by its resemblance to or difference from qualities
in other objects. The truth seems to lie between the two ideas, for in
some cases there seems to be a perception of some similarity or
difference before any analysis or abstraction takes place; while in
others there seems to be an analysis or abstraction before comparison is
possible. In this book we have followed the arrangement favored by the
latest authorities, but the question is still an open one to many minds.
As we have seen, the general concept once having been formed, the mind
proceeds to classify the concept with others having general qualities in
common. And, likewise, it proceeds to generalize from the
classification, assuming certain qualities in certain classes. Then we
proceed to make still further generalizations and classifications on an
ascending and widening scale, including seeming resemblances less
marked, until finally we embrace the object with other objects in as
large a class as possible as well as in as close and limited a sub-class
as possible. As Brooks says: "Generalization is an ascending process.
The broader concept is regarded as higher than the narrower concept; a
concept is considered higher than a percept; a general idea stands above
a particular idea. We thus go up from particulars to generals; from
percepts to concepts; from lower concepts to higher concepts. Beginning
down with particular objects, we rise from them to the general idea of
their class. Having formed a number of lower classes, we compare them as
we did individuals and generalize them into higher classes. We perform
the same process with these higher classes, and thus proceed until we
are at last arrested in the highest class, _Being_. Having reached the
pinnacle of generalization, we may descend the ladder by reversing the
process through which we ascend."
From this process of generalization, or synthesis, we create from our
simple concepts our _general concepts_. Some of the older authorities
distinguished between these two classes by terming the former
"conceptions," and reserving the term "concepts" for the general
concepts. Brooks says of this: "The products of generalization are
general ideas called _concepts_. We have already discussed the method of
forming conceptions and now consider the nature of the concept
itself.... A concept is a general idea. It is a general notion which has
in it all that is common to its own class. It is a general scheme which
embraces all the individuals of the class while it resembles in all
respects none of its class. Thus my conception of a _quadruped_ has in
it all four-footed animals, but it does not correspond in all respects
to any particular animals; my conception of a _triangle_ embraces all
triangles, but does not agree in details with any particular triangle.
The general conception cannot be made to fit exactly any particular
object, but it teems with many particulars. These points may be
illustrated with the concepts _horse_, _bird_, _color_, _animal_, etc."
So we may begin to perceive the distinction and difference between a
_concept_ and a _mental image_. This distinction, and the fact that _a
concept cannot be imaged_, is generally difficult for the beginner. It
is important that one should have a clear and distinct understanding
regarding this point, and so we shall consider it further in the
following chapter.