94. This division into Subject-terms and Attributives may be
regarded as a division of terms according to their place in
thought. Attributives, as we have seen, are essentially predicates,
and can only be thought of in relation to the subject, whereas the
subject is thought of for its own sake.



_Abstract and Concrete Terms_.


95. An Abstract Term is the name of an attribute, e.g. whiteness
[Footnote: Since things cannot be spoken of except by their names,
there is a constantly recurring source of confusion between the thing
itself and the name of it. Take for instance 'whiteness.' The
attribute whiteness is a thing, the word 'whiteness' is a term.],
multiplication, act, purpose, explosion.

96. A Concrete Term is the name of a substance, e.g. a man, this
chair, the soul, God.

97. Abstract terms are so called as being arrived at by a process of
Abstraction. What is meant by Abstraction will be clear from a single
instance. The mind, in contemplating a number of substances, may draw
off, or abstract, its attention from all their other characteristics,
and fix it only on some point, or points, which they have in
common. Thus, in contemplating a number of three-cornered objects, we
may draw away our attention from all their other qualities, and fix it
exclusively upon their three-corneredness, thus constituting the