tion, and the
process as one of abstraction.

=The Class Notion.=--One or more of such abstracted qualities may,
moreover, be recognized as common to an indefinite number of objects.
For instance, in addition to its ability to abstract from the perception
of a dog, the abstract notions four-footedness, hairy, barking, etc.,
the mind further gives them a general character by thinking of them as
qualities common to an indefinite number of other possible individuals,
namely, the class four-footed, hairy, barking objects. Because the idea
representing the quality or qualities is here accepted by the mind as a
means of identifying a number of objects, the idea is spoken of as a
class notion, and the process as one of classification, or
generalization. Thus it appears that, through its ability to detect
sameness and difference, or discover relations, the mind is able to form
two somewhat different notions. By mentally abstracting any quality and
regarding it as something distinct from the object, it obtains an
abstract notion, as sweetness, bravery, hardness, etc.; by synthesising
and symbolizing the images of certain qualities recognized in objects,
it obtains a general, or class, notion by which it may represent an
indefinite number of individual things as, triangle, horse, desert, etc.
Thus abstract notions are supposed to represent qualities; class
notions, things. Because of its reference to a number of objects, the
class notion is spoken of especially as a general notion, and the
process of forming the notion as one of generalization. These two types
of notions are technically known as concepts, and the process of their
formation as one of conception.

=Formal Analysis of Process.=--At this point may be recalled what was
stated in Chapter XV concerning the development of a class notion.
Mention was there made of the theory that in the formation of such
concepts, or class notions, as cow, dog, desk, chair, adjective, etc.,
the mind must proceed through certain set stages as follows:

1. Comparison: The examination of a certain number of particular
individuals in order to discover points of similarity and
difference.

2. Abstraction: The distinguishing of certain characteristics
common to the objects.

3. Generalization: The mental unification, or synthesis, of these
common characteristics noted in different individuals into a class
notion represented by a name, or general ter