ABSTRACT
The second degree of abstraction is the abstractio formae or, formal abstraction or formalization. Despite their other differences, all of the various Thomistic schools associated formalization with the abstraction of the accidental form 'quantity'. There are three difficulties with this approach. First, it takes quantity as given, when in fact it may be reducible to a more fundamental category. Second, it is not at all clear that the form which formalization comprehends is best characterized as 'accidental'. Third, defining formalization in terms of quantity fails to capture what is going on in a whole range of disciplines, especially but not exclusively in the social sciences. This chapter concludes with an assessment of the claim of formalization to disclose the essence of things and even to grasp the mind of God, something which will establish even more definitively than we have already the dependence of the lower on the higher degrees of abstraction – and of all on transcendental abstraction.
