9. And as the mind frames to itself abstract ideas of qualities or
modes, so does it, by the same precision or mental separation,
attain abstract ideas of the more compounded beings which include
several coexistent qualities. For example, the mind having observed
that Peter, James, and John resemble each other in certain common
agreements of shape and other qualities, leaves out of the complex
or compounded idea it has of Peter, James, and any other particular
man, that which is peculiar to each, retaining only what is common
to all, and so makes an abstract idea wherein all the particulars
equally partake- abstracting entirely from and cutting off all those
circumstances and differences which might determine it to any
particular existence. And after this manner it is said we come by
the abstract idea of man, or, if you please, humanity, or human
nature; wherein it is true there is included colour, because there
is no man but has some colour, but then it can be neither white, nor
black, nor any particular colour, because there is no one particular
colour wherein all men partake. So likewise there is included stature,
but then it is neither tall stature, nor low stature, nor yet middle
stature, but something abstracted from all these. And so of the
rest. Moreover, their being a great variety of other creatures that
partake in some parts, but not all, of the complex idea of man, the
mind, leaving out those parts which are peculiar to men, and retaining
those only which are common to all the living creatures, frames the
idea of animal, which abstracts not only from all particular men,
but also all birds, beasts, fishes, and insects. The constituent parts
of the abstract idea of animal are body, life, sense, and
spontaneous motion. By body is meant body without any particular shape
or figure, there being no one shape or figure common to all animals,
without covering, either of hair, or feathers, or scales, &c., nor yet
naked: hair, feathers, scales, and nakedness being the
distinguishing properties of particular animals, and for that reason
left out of the abstract idea. Upon the same account the spontaneous
motion must be neither walking, nor flying, nor creeping; it is
nevertheless a motion, but what that motion is it is not easy to
conceive.

  10. Whether others have this wonderful faculty of abstracting
their ideas, they best can tell: for myself, I find indeed I have a
faculty of imagining, or representing to myself, the ideas of those
particular things I have perceived, and of variously compounding and
dividing them. I can imagine a man with two heads, or the upper
parts of a man joined to the body of a horse. I can consider the hand,
the eye, the nose, each by itself abstracted or separated from the
rest of the body. But then whatever hand or eye I imagine, it must
have some particular shape and colour. Likewise the idea of man that I
frame to myself must be either of a white, or a black, or a tawny, a
straight, or a crooked, a tall, or a low, or a middle-sized man. I
cannot by any effort of thought conceive the abstract idea above
described. And it is equally impossible for me to form the abstract
idea of motion distinct from the body moving, and which is neither
swift nor slow, curvilinear nor rectilinear; and the like may be
said of all other abstract general ideas whatsoever. To be plain, I
own myself able to abstract in one sense, as when I consider some
particular parts or qualities separated from others, with which,
though they are united in some object, yet it is possible they may
really exist without them. But I deny that I can abstract from one
another, or conceive separately, those qualities which it is
impossible should exist so separated; or that I can frame a general
notion, by abstracting from particulars in the manner aforesaid- which
last are the two proper acceptations of abstraction. And there are
grounds to think most men will acknowledge themselves to be in my
case. The generality of men which are simple and illiterate never
pretend to abstract notions. It is said they are difficult and not
to be attained without pains and study; we may therefore reasonably
conclude that, if such there be, they are confined only to the
learned.

  11. I proceed to examine what can be alleged in defence of the
doctrine of abstraction, and try if I can discover what it is that
inclines the men of speculation to embrace an opinion so remote from
common sense as that seems to be. There has been a late deservedly
esteemed philosopher who, no doubt, has given it very much
countenance, by seeming to think the having abstract general ideas
is what puts the widest difference in point of understanding betwixt
man and beast. "The having of general ideas," saith he, "is that which
puts a perfect distinction betwixt man and brutes, and is an
excellency which the faculties of brutes do by no means attain unto.
For, it is evident we observe no foot-steps in them of making use of
general signs for universal ideas; from which we have reason to
imagine that they have not the faculty of abstracting, or making
general ideas, since they have no use of words or any other general
signs." And a little after: "Therefore, I think, we may suppose that
it is in this that the species of brutes are discriminated from men,
and it is that proper difference wherein they are wholly separated,
and which at last widens to so wide a distance. For, if they have
any ideas at all, and are not bare machines (as some would have them),
we cannot deny them to have some reason. It seems as evident to me
that they do, some of them, in certain instances reason as that they
have sense; but it is only in particular ideas, just as they receive
them from their senses. They are the best of them tied up within those
narrow bounds, and have not (as I think) the faculty to enlarge them
by any kind of abstraction."- Essay on Human Understanding, II. xi. 10
and 11. I readily agree with this learned author, that the faculties
of brutes can by no means attain to abstraction. But then if this be
made the distinguishing property of that sort of animals, I fear a
great many of those that pass for men must be reckoned into their
number. The reason that is here assigned why we have no grounds to
think brutes have abstract general ideas is, that we observe in them
no use of words or any other general signs; which is built on this