Abstract
IN theories and experiments on concept formation, the terms generalization and abstraction are often used in an equivocal sense, frequently as synonyms to describe the process of forming a concept from perceptual or verbal data. In one sense, however, the terms are distinct, as for example, when a concept name shifts its meaning from the concrete-general to the abstract-particular, as in the following sentences involving the concept “ballad”. (1) A ballad is a piece of creative writing. (2) The ballad is a literary form. We can describe any concept by a double notation, made up of (i) a0, a1, a2 … levels of abstraction, where a0 is the concrete, and (ii) g0, gi, gii, giii … degrees of generalization, where g0 is the unique or the particular.
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PEEL, E. Generalizing and Abstracting. Nature 230, 600 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1038/230600a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/230600a0
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