Giving voice to abstractions

[sandrabullock]

Should people's ability to speak on the behalf of abstractions be limited?

e.g.

'Irony dislikes being used by Cambodians.'
'God hates/likes homosexuals, leafy vegetables, and vowels.'
'This act is contrary to our most basic notion of humanity.'


(I'm not arguing that it should... just raising the question)

 

[Spungo Mungo]

I'll consult the tesseract... hold on...

 

[CoryJames]

People will always speak on behalf of abstractions, and we have no means of limiting it. People like to rally abstractions, most notably "America" and the "Bible" and "God", to their causes to give their arguments and opinions more weight and more support. This has always and will always happen.

 

[Melllvar]

Hm, interesting, I'd certainly not want to limit it because that would be fairly fascist, but it does seem like speaking on behalf of an abstraction should be labeled as a logical fallacy or cognitive bias if used in arguments or discussions. Maybe people should be educated against being swayed by someone speaking on behalf of abstractions.

Unless there's an example of where speaking on behalf of an abstraction is not a logical fallacy. I can't think of one off the top of my head. They may accurately describe a situation ("my body doesn't want to die of cancer"), but they don't seem to hold literal truth. Unless I'm just missing an obvious example.

It would be hard to define what is literally an 'abstraction' though. In the above example "body" could be taken as an abstract concept of the combination of parts that make it up, or as a literal entity. It's really the personification of it that makes it a problem in that case. But I digress.

 

[nexion]

Oh, boo. And here I was thinking you meant logical abstractions.

 

[Trebuchet]

Things like to be anthropomorphized.

 

[420MuNkEy]

Speech wants to be free.

 

[BigApplePi]

Should people's ability to speak on the behalf of abstractions be limited?/QUOTE]

Which?
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/abstraction

ab·strac·tion

   /æbˈstræk

ʃən/ Show Spelled[ab-strak-shuh

n] Show IPA
–noun 1. an abstract or general idea or term.

2. the act of considering something as a general quality or characteristic, apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances.

3. an impractical idea; something visionary and unrealistic.

4. the act of taking away or separating; withdrawal: The sensation of cold is due to the abstraction of heat from our bodies.

5. secret removal, esp. theft.

6. absent-mindedness; inattention; mental absorption.

7. Fine Arts . a. the abstract qualities or characteristics of a work of art.

b. a work of art, esp. a nonrepresentational one, stressing formal relationships.

Seems to me if the concrete is the only sure reality in the sense we can be closest to it, then there is too much of it. We MUST abstract and generalize to pull things together to deal with them away from the undistinguished morass. It's the difference between ordinary animals and humans.

That's why I's are superior to S's .
T's are superior to F's.
J's are superior to ... oh no no no.