CONCRETE (Lat. concretes, participle of concrescere, to grow together)

This article appears in Volume V06, Page 835 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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CONCRETE (Lat. concretes, participle of concrescere, to grow together) , a

term

TERM

used in various technical senses with the general significance of combination, conjunction, solidity. Thus the building material made up of

separate

SEPARATE

substances combined into one is known as concrete (see below). In

mathematics

MATHEMATICS (Gr. /saBnµar1Kil, Sc. vOcvn or E7rlQTt'µn; from p iN.La, "learning" or "science ")

and music, the

adjective

ADJECTIVE (from the Lat. adjectives, added)

has been used as synonymous with " continuous " as opposed to " discrete, " i.e. "

separate

SEPARATE

, " " discontinuous." This

antithesis

ANTITHESIS (the Greek for " setting opposite ")

is no doubt influenced by the

idea

IDEA (Gr. Ibia, connected with i&eiv, to see; cf. Lat. species from specere, to look at)

that the two words derive from a common origin, whereas " discrete " is derived from the Latin discernere. In logic and also in common language concrete terms are those which signify persons or things as opposed to abstract terms which signify qualities, relations, attributes (so J. S. Mill). Thus the

term

TERM

" man " is concrete, while " manhood " and " humanity " are abstract, the names of the qualities implied. Confusions between abstract and concrete terms are frequent; thus the word " relation," which is strictly an abstract term implying connexion between two things or persons, is often used instead of the correct term " relative " for

people

PEOPLE

related to one another. Concrete terms are further subdivided as Singular, the names of things regarded as individuals, and General or Common, the names which a number of things

bear

in common in virtue of their possession of common characteristics. These latter terms, though concrete in so far as they denote the persons or things which are known by them (see DENOTATION), have also an abstract sense when viewed connotatively, i.e. as implying the quality or qualities in

isolation

ISOLATION

from the individuals. The ascription of adjectives to the class of concrete terms, upheld by J. S. Mill, has been disputed on the ground that adjectives are applied both to concrete and to abstract terms. Hence some logicians make a separate class for adjectives, as being the names neither of things nor of qualities, and describe them as Attributive terms.

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