To a sound judgment, the most abstract truth is...

[coberst]

“To a sound judgment, the most abstract truth is the most practical.”—Emerson

A useful metaphor for comprehending the meaning of abstract truth would be—‘Abstract Truth is Chemical Compound’.

An abstract idea is composed of both individual concepts and other abstract concepts just as a chemical compound is composed of individual atoms and molecules.

An example of a most abstract truth might be found in John Rawls book “A Theory of Justice”. Rawls concludes that an apt metaphor might be ‘Justice is Fairness’.

I guess that every child develops many concepts of fairness as s/he grows up. “Mom, Chris is cheating.” “Mom, Chris always takes the bigger piece of cake.” “Pick on someone your own size.” The abstract concept ‘fairness’ would contain many other abstract concepts and individual literal concepts. There would also be additional abstract concepts making up the abstract metaphor ‘Justice is Fairness’.

Of course one must examine the meaning of “a sound judgment”. I would say that Critical Thinking skills are a necessary but not sufficient component of sound judgments. Since everybody considers themselves to be a critical thinker I would have to define several different levels of critical thinking.

A level one critical thinker is a ‘trust but verify’ critical thinker. A level two critical thinker is one who has taken the college course Logic 101 or has studied this subject matter on their own. The level three critical thinkers I call CT (Critical Thinker). This is a student of rational thinking who has mastered Logic 101 plus the character traits and attitude of sound critical thinking.

Can you think of an abstract idea that might be more practical than ‘justice is fairness’?

[Spindrift]

“To a sound judgment, the most abstract truth is the most practical.”—Emerson

A useful metaphor for comprehending the meaning of abstract truth would be—‘Abstract Truth is Chemical Compound’.

An abstract idea is composed of both individual concepts and other abstract concepts just as a chemical compound is composed of individual atoms and molecules.

An example of a most abstract truth might be found in John Rawls book “A Theory of Justice”. Rawls concludes that an apt metaphor might be ‘Justice is Fairness’.

I guess that every child develops many concepts of fairness as s/he grows up. “Mom, Chris is cheating.” “Mom, Chris always takes the bigger piece of cake.” “Pick on someone your own size.” The abstract concept ‘fairness’ would contain many other abstract concepts and individual literal concepts. There would also be additional abstract concepts making up the abstract metaphor ‘Justice is Fairness’.

Of course one must examine the meaning of “a sound judgment”. I would say that Critical Thinking skills are a necessary but not sufficient component of sound judgments. Since everybody considers themselves to be a critical thinker I would have to define several different levels of critical thinking.

A level one critical thinker is a ‘trust but verify’ critical thinker. A level two critical thinker is one who has taken the college course Logic 101 or has studied this subject matter on their own. The level three critical thinkers I call CT (Critical Thinker). This is a student of rational thinking who has mastered Logic 101 plus the character traits and attitude of sound critical thinking.

Can you think of an abstract idea that might be more practical than ‘justice is fairness’?

Trying to make the perjorative "CTer" into a compliment?

Here's an abstract idea for you: "Truth can be proven".

Not sure if I can prove it, you'll have to take it on faith.

[Kopji]

'Justice is fairness' does not seem much like a metaphor to me, but maybe I don't understand.

How about something like -
Justice maintains a balance or harmony like music. Mercy and compassion are important aspects, and appear as necessary elements; but the main theme of justice follows certain principles that demand we respect and consider the views of many sides when making decisions. This is the essence of being fair.

I don't always understand the usefulness of labeling things like category one, two, etc. I suppose that it makes for easier handling of abstract ideas, but more often a label seems to come between us and the thing. Maybe that's what Emerson meant.

[coberst]

Trying to make the perjorative "CTer" into a compliment?

Here's an abstract idea for you: "Truth can be proven".

Not sure if I can prove it, you'll have to take it on faith.

Truth is certainly an abstract idea. Proof is another. These may be abstract ideas of great practical importance that beat out justice and fairness. Faith is another of these practical abstract concepts.

[Cosmo]

coberst, you're back! I missed you and your daily threads!

[coberst]

'Justice is fairness' does not seem much like a metaphor to me, but maybe I don't understand.

How about something like -
Justice maintains a balance or harmony like music. Mercy and compassion are important aspects, and appear as necessary elements; but the main theme of justice follows certain principles that demand we respect and consider the views of many sides when making decisions. This is the essence of being fair.

I don't always understand the usefulness of labeling things like category one, two, etc. I suppose that it makes for easier handling of abstract ideas, but more often a label seems to come between us and the thing. Maybe that's what Emerson meant.

A metaphor 'B is A' uses A to help explain the meaning of B. To say 'know is see' helps to illuminate the meaning of knowing. Likewise 'understand is grasp' helps to illuminate understand and also to illuminate the difference between know and understand.

An abstract concept is subjective and is not formed directly as an experience. The experience can become the subjective abstract concept after the experience. The mapping of the experience concept into the mental space of the abstract concept may be actuated either consciously or unconsciously.

Children have many occasions for developing experiences about fairness. Children have experience about sharing with a sibling and the concepts developed in this experience become part of the abstract concept fairness. The child has experiences about fighting fair. The child is constantly comparing his or her experience with what others get or do not get to ascertain the fairness of the transaction.

Fairness is a subjective concept it is an abstraction and is constructed by incorporating the concepts of many of these actual experiences that the child categorizes as being fair or nor fair. The abstract concept ‘fairness’ is constructed of the concepts of these and other experiences throughout life that are categorized by the child as fitting into the abstract concept of fairness.

When we create the metaphor ‘justice is fairness’ we are including within this abstract concept called justice the other abstract which we call ‘fairness’. The concept ‘justice’ has also other concepts that deal with the law. If one could take apart the concept ‘justice’ we would find a whole file cabinet of concepts. Thus is the reason that I said that these abstract concepts are like a chemical compound. They are strings of various real experience concepts some of which are other abstract concepts.

All of this explains why Emerson would say that the more abstract the concept the more practical because it contains so many life experiences.

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

The word fair should be eliminated from all philosophical and political discussions. It's meaningless.

~~ Paul

[Loss Leader]

The word fair should be eliminated from all philosophical and political discussions. It's meaningless.

~~ Paul

My nine and five year-old nieces were visiting this weekend. The nine year-old finished her dinner and was allowed a cookie. The five year-old did not finish her dinner but began crying that she wanted a cookie and it wasn't fair. I asked her how she was defining fairness. She looked at me, stamped her foot, and said, "I want a cookie!"

So, that's about as far as the word "fair" will take you, I guess.

[coberst]

The child certainly knew the meaning of fair!

[Orangutan]

Fair's Fair.
I thought everyone knew that?

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

That's the problem with fair: Everyone knows what it means. Unfortunately, they don't all have the same meaning in mind.

~~ Paul

[fuelair]

I choose not to be fair in this matter. What do I mean and what is the matter? Answer in 500 words or less. This instruction is for Coberst or his twin. ONLY!!!?

[RandFan]

I think the closest you will ever get to fair is to have two children share a candy bar. One must divide the candy bar in half. The other gets to choose which half he or she wants to eat.

Aside from that I got nothing.

[Marquis de Carabas]

I enjoy teaching children lessons about fairness and sharing. I like to present two children with a candy bar and ask them what would be the fair way to divide it. I send them off to think really hard about the answer, hoping they can come up with what RandFan said above on their own. While they're gone, I eat the candy bar.

[fuelair]

I enjoy teaching children lessons about fairness and sharing. I like to present two children with a candy bar and ask them what would be the fair way to divide it. I send them off to think really hard about the answer, hoping they can come up with what RandFan said above on their own. While they're gone, I eat the candy bar.


Completely fair by me - you not only teach them logic, but they have learned to note what is not stated as well as what is. A true learning experience!!

[RandFan]

I enjoy teaching children lessons about fairness and sharing. I like to present two children with a candy bar and ask them what would be the fair way to divide it. I send them off to think really hard about the answer, hoping they can come up with what RandFan said above on their own. While they're gone, I eat the candy bar.:D There's the post that made my day. And so early, it's going to be a good day.