I don’t think we really can. The categories of concrete and abstract objects are supposed to carve reality at its joins: I see a chair, I prove a theorem. You can’t really do this sort of analysis without reference to the chairs and the theorems, and if you do make those references, you must have already settled the question of whether a chair is concrete, and a fortiori whether concrete objects exist. The alternative, studying concepts that were originally intended to carve reality at its joins without intending to do so yourself, has historically been unproductive, except to some extent in math.
Right, so accept that both abstract and concrete objects exist.. While you’re not doing science feel free to think about what abstraction is, what concrete means and so on.
I don’t think I’ve been clear. I’m saying that the categories of abstract and concrete objects are themselves generated by experience and are intended to reflect natural categories, and that it’s not useful to think about what abstraction is without thinking about particular abstract objects and what makes us consider them abstract.
We can wonder about the nature of concrete objects and the nature of abstract objects without quarreling about whether or not one exists.
I don’t think we really can. The categories of concrete and abstract objects are supposed to carve reality at its joins: I see a chair, I prove a theorem. You can’t really do this sort of analysis without reference to the chairs and the theorems, and if you do make those references, you must have already settled the question of whether a chair is concrete, and a fortiori whether concrete objects exist. The alternative, studying concepts that were originally intended to carve reality at its joins without intending to do so yourself, has historically been unproductive, except to some extent in math.
Right, so accept that both abstract and concrete objects exist.. While you’re not doing science feel free to think about what abstraction is, what concrete means and so on.
I don’t think I’ve been clear. I’m saying that the categories of abstract and concrete objects are themselves generated by experience and are intended to reflect natural categories, and that it’s not useful to think about what abstraction is without thinking about particular abstract objects and what makes us consider them abstract.