ABSTRACT
THEcoreofTaine'sphilosophy,andofhisattemptatascienceofcriticism,ishissearchforthe'trueabstraction',thatis,forthenaturaltypewhichisnotmerelyaformal conceptbutis,inthefullestsense,concrete.Permanentcauses, idealtypes,generativefacts,elementarymoralstates,races,essentialcharacters,generalcharacters,masterfaculties-theseareall variationsonthesametheme,developedindifferentcontexts. Whataresomeoftheproblemsinvolvedinthissearch?Howdidit enableTainetocompletehistheoryandpracticeofcriticism?
