9. THE CONCEPT AS A THOUGHT PRODUCT.
Conception is the process of thinking many notions into one class. The product of such a process is called a concept. (1) The concept may stand for a group of concrete general notions—as the concept man, which stands for the five general notions: Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, Malay and American Indian. (2) The concept may stand for a group of concrete individual notions. For example, the same concept man represents all of the individual men of the world. (3) The concept may stand for a group of abstract general notions. To wit: Virtue represents such general notions as honesty, justice, industry, purity, etc. (These are general notions because they admit of a subdivision into kinds. Industry, for instance, may be dividedinto two kinds: mental industry and physical industry.) (4) The concept may stand for a group of abstract individual notions. To illustrate: Blueness stands for the various shades of blue, as sky blue, bird’s egg blue, navy blue, etc.
Thus does the concept stand for a group of all kinds of notions, individual and general, abstract and concrete.
THE PROCESS OF CONCEPTION ILLUSTRATED.
I see for the first time in my life a pencil. In other words I become conscious of a localized group of sensations—this is a percept. I am told that the name of that which I see is pencil. I note that this particular pencil has a thread of black lead encased in a cylindrical strip of wood which is brown in color. A second object is presented which I recognize as a pencil though the shape is prismatic rather than cylindrical and the color green rather than brown. But I call it a pencil because it has a thread of black lead encased in a strip of wood. The notion which I now have in mind stands for two pencils and is therefore represented by a class name. As I observe other pencils of various shapes, made of wood and paper with threads of different colored lead, my notion of pencil broadens till finally it stands for all pencils. This is the process of conception according to the definition, namely: “The process of thinking many notions into one class.” In this case the notions are individual.
An examination of conception makes evident two distinct characteristics.First, I may be able to recognize each individual pencil because of the two common qualities, a thread of lead and an encasement of some kind. This process of the knowing mind whereby it recognizes and affirms connections is called thinking as we have already learned. Here is the thinking aspect of conception. Second, as the instances of the observed objects are multiplied, my notion of pencil is broadened. It is a building process where many are cemented into one; like the blocks of a cement wall. Here we find the characteristic which enables us to call the process conception. This is the mark which distinguishes conception from all the other thought processes.