Note 54 — Front matter (continued 2)
Reading edition
It is impossible to go deeper into James' "theory of knowledge" without using technical language. A few of his own phrases, however, may help to elucidate things. "Abstract concepts ... are salient aspects of our concrete experiences which we find it useful to single out" (Meaning of Truth, p. 246).
Elsewhere he speaks of them as things we have learned to "cut out" from experience, as "flowers gathered," and as "moments dipped out from the stream of time" (A Pluralistic Universe, p. 235).
I owe these quotations to Perry, op. cit.