PiMac, like so many simplifications, it is so true, and yet so false:-)...The abilities of generalization and the manipulation of symbols, which are the basis of abstraction, are innate, and grow with time. Education improves them, which is why Plato recommended the study of geometry before engaging in philosophical discussion, and there are genetic variations in intelligence, which affect the facility with which one performs the mental operations necessary to refined abstraction. Informally, culture educates one to certain proclivities, even before one embarks on a course of study. Therefore, there may be a sense in which the divisions you have been urging are useful. However, it is obvious that intelligent and well-educated individuals would function beyond the level of the Concrete, even if short of the level of refined Abstraction, and the premise that stress causes a reversion is overblown, since habits become ingrained. One may as well assert that children never grow out of the stage where they believe that the ball that rolls under the sofa has disappeared, when one asserts that one's place on the axis is practically fixed for life.
Now, at some point you subtly move from the description of mental types to the description of personality types, which is different. It may be that there are different styles, or preferences, of problem solving, and that your terms describe two broad types. I doubt that your examples quite make the point you wish to, since, for example, cooking haute cuisine is no more abstract than cooking a hamburger, it just involves different skills and priorities. However, I will help you out by proposing for your axes those who prefer geology and those who prefer physics. Although there are broad theories in geology, such as plate tectonics, for the most part to study geology is to immerse yourself in a world of things, and lists of things. Although there are particular facts in physics, for the most part one is studying the underlying laws and processes that shape things. Some people gravitate to one area, some to another. I am not sure that one can draw the conclusion about each type that you have attempted, but it is certain the preferences exist. Perhaps we can use this as a starting point for a fresh attempt at resolving this.... |
