One point I’d make is that I tried to limit my discussion to ‘abstraction’ as it relates to concepts, as that seemed most pertinent to the quote you cited. The opposite of abstract is concrete. I’m not entirely sure that we should confound the abstract/concrete comparison with that of general/specific.
“pizza that is warm, has an exterior that is thin and crispy, an interior that is warm, chewy, and fresh, a thin layer of tomato sauce that is mildly sweet and acidic, and small dollups of fresh mozzarella cheese that is cool and soft” Let’s say you’ve just described a ‘Napolitana’ pizza. Is “large Napolitana” specific in your sense? I can see a definitional regression emerging. For this reason, I suspect that specificity/generality might be best kept to comparisons relative to some ‘basis’ concepts, rather than made in some absolute sense.
“Last weekend” has its own issues, being relative to the day it is uttered. Indeed, to account for any day of utterance, it might be a difficult concept to articulate precisely. As a ‘relative’ (or ‘relational’) concept, it might be general in that it ranges over many instances.
There is the further issue of vagueness. Many of the concepts you use (eg, warm,thin, etc.) are not precise. This issue is exacerbated with good, which is, in addition, inherently subjective.
They’re all interesting questions.
One point I’d make is that I tried to limit my discussion to ‘abstraction’ as it relates to concepts, as that seemed most pertinent to the quote you cited. The opposite of abstract is concrete. I’m not entirely sure that we should confound the abstract/concrete comparison with that of general/specific.
“pizza that is warm, has an exterior that is thin and crispy, an interior that is warm, chewy, and fresh, a thin layer of tomato sauce that is mildly sweet and acidic, and small dollups of fresh mozzarella cheese that is cool and soft”
Let’s say you’ve just described a ‘Napolitana’ pizza. Is “large Napolitana” specific in your sense? I can see a definitional regression emerging. For this reason, I suspect that specificity/generality might be best kept to comparisons relative to some ‘basis’ concepts, rather than made in some absolute sense.
“Last weekend” has its own issues, being relative to the day it is uttered. Indeed, to account for any day of utterance, it might be a difficult concept to articulate precisely. As a ‘relative’ (or ‘relational’) concept, it might be general in that it ranges over many instances.
There is the further issue of vagueness. Many of the concepts you use (eg, warm, thin, etc.) are not precise. This issue is exacerbated with good, which is, in addition, inherently subjective.