Generic Image
Generic Image
(Lat. genus, kind) A mental image which is sufficiently vague and indeterminate to represent a number of different members of a class and thus to provide the imaginal basis of a concept. A generic image is thus intermediate between a concrete image and a generic concept. The vagueness of the generic image contrasts with the specificity of the concrete image, yet the generic image lacks the fullness of meaning requisite to a genuine concept. The doctrine of the generic image was introduced by Francis Galton who drew the analogy with composite photography (Inquiries into Human Faculty, 1883 appendix on Generic Images) and is adopted by Huxley (Hume, Ch. IV). The existence of non-specific or generic images would be challenged by most contemporary psychologists. — L.W.