Kinds of Idea

Kinds of Idea according to Origin

Intuitive

• Intuitive or immediate ideas are those which are formed as the

result of the direct perception of things
• As we experience our world our senses are constantly providing us
with sense data. We see objects of all sorts along with their colors,
sounds, smells, textures, and tastes. All these things make an
impression on our senses. The senses send these messages to the
mind and our intellects form ideas of these things as we perceive
them.
Kinds of Idea according to Origin

Abstractive
• Abstractive or mediate ideas are formed of objects by
some means other than their immediate perception.
• For example, we form ideas of places, persons, and things
through reading, watching television, and conversing with
other people. We also experience things like heat from our
furnace and light from our lamp which we know are the
result of electricity. We have an idea of electricity even
though we don’t perceive electricity itself but only its effects.
Kinds of Idea according to Relation

Connex
• Ideas are connex when one idea necessarily includes or
excludes the other.
• Examples of connex ideas which include each other are:
mother-child, husband-wife, superior-inferior, teacher-
student, employer-employee, politician-constituent.
• Examples of connex ideas which exclude each other are:
day-night, virtue-vice, good-bad, rich-poor, tall-short.
Kinds of Idea according to Relation

Disparate
• Ideas are disparate when they neither necessarily include nor
necessarily exclude each other.
• Examples of disparate ideas are: man-black, wise-good, wheel-
wood, rich-famous, tall-handsome.
• A man may be black, but some men are not. A wise person may be
good, but some are not. A wheel may be made of wood, but it need
not be. A person may be rich and unknown, or famous and poor. A
man may be tall, but he need not be handsome (although he may
Kinds of Idea according to Relation

Identical
• Ideas are identical when their comprehension is the same.
• Examples of identical ideas are: human being-rational animal, salt-
sodium chloride, dog-sentient living substance, water-two atoms of
hydrogen with one atom of oxygen (H2O).
Kinds of Idea according to Relation

Diverse
• Ideas are diverse when their comprehension is different.
• Examples of diverse ideas are: human being-automobile,
dog-water lily, house-whale, gold-ruby.
Kinds of Idea
Kinds of Idea according to their Comprehension

Simple
• Ideas may be simple. This means their
comprehension consists of one single element or
attribute. Examples of simple ideas are “being,” “one,”
and “object.” Their comprehension consists of a
single attribute or element.
Kinds of Idea according to their Comprehension

Composite
• Ideas may be composite. This means their comprehension
consists of more than one element or attribute. Most ideas
we have experience with are composite. Ideas such as
house, animal, billionaire, plumber, child, and so forth are
composed of a number of attributes or elements. Recall that
the idea of “human being” is composed of substance, body,
living, sentient, rational.
Kinds of Idea according to their Comprehension

Concrete
• Some ideas are concrete. These ideas express a nature or
determining element as inherent in a subject. A concrete
idea always represents an object as it is found in reality.
Examples of concrete ideas are: horses, man, lilies, herons,
salmon. These are things in nature. Other examples are
black, blue, sharp, tall, small. These ideas represent
attributes of things in nature.
Kinds of Idea according to their Comprehension

Abstract
• Some ideas are abstract. These ideas express a nature or
determining element considered by the mind as separated
from the subject in which it inheres. The concrete idea of
“man” becomes an abstract idea when we consider it by
itself as “humanity.” “Horse” is a concrete idea but
“horseness” is an abstract idea. “Black” is a concrete idea
but “blackness” is abstract, as are “sharpness,” “tallness,”
Kinds of Idea according to their Extension

Singular
• Ideas are singular when they represent a single object only.
Examples are: Thomas Jefferson, my dog Ming, Socrates. These
are known as proper nouns or names in English. But ideas can also
be singular if the class name is such that it can apply to only one
object.
• For example: “this hat” is singular because there can only be one
hat in the class of “this hat.” Also, “the President of the United
States” is a singular idea because there is only one individual within
the class.
Kinds of Idea according to their Comprehension

Universal
• Ideas are universal when they represent some common nature or
element which can be applied to a class as a whole and to each
individual member of that class. The great majority of ordinary ideas
are universal ideas. The idea of “human being” fits every human
being, past, present, and future. The statement “The dog is an
animal” is as true of my Lhasa Apso, Ming, as it is of all the dogs
that have ever lived or will live.
Kinds of Idea according to their Comprehension

Particular
• Ideas are particular when they are universals taken partly and
indeterminately. The singular idea applies to only one individual. The
universal idea applies to each and all of a class. The particular idea,
on the other hand, applies neither to one nor to all, but to some of
class in an indeterminate manner.
• If we can place the word “all” or “every” before an idea, it is universal.
But if we place the word “some” before an idea, it is particular. For
example: “Human beings are mortal” is the same as “All human
beings are mortal.” In this case, “human beings” is a universal.
Kinds of Idea according to their Comprehension

Particular
• If we say “Some human beings are black,” we restrict the universal
idea “human beings” to an indeterminate portion of the whole class
of human beings and we then have a particular idea. While “human
being” may be universal in some statements, we can make it
particular in other statements by restricting its application only to
“some.”