We now can have some sense of what each is, based on our understanding of how each is dissimilar, or opposite to the other. What is "hot"? Hot is "not cold". Likewise, cold is "not hot"

Concepts or ideas which are pure abstractions will always fit into one of the four categories of our scale of comparison. In order to understand abstract ideas, we must not only find out what they are, but what they are not.

The rule that all pure abstractions must fit into one of the four comparison categories is important in that it enables us to distinguish pure abstractions from semi-abstractions. Semi-abstractions won't fit into any of the scale categories.

For example, what is the opposite of "today"? "Tomorrow"? Why not "Yesterday"? What is the the opposite of "weather"? "No weather at all"? An impossibility!

Clearly, we can see that "today" and "weather" are semi-abstract terms. "Hot", on the other hand, is a pure abstraction, as it can be compared to its opposite, "not hot", or "cold".

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