CONCARNEAU

concarneau, a fishing port of western france in the department of finistere, 14 m. by road s.e. of quimper. pop. (1906) 7887. the town occupies a picturesque situation on an inlet opening into the bay of la foret. the old portion stands on an island, and is surrounded by ramparts, parts of which are believed to date from the 14th century. it is an important centre of the sardine, mackerel and lobster fisheries. sardine-preserving, boat-building and the manufacture of sardine-boxes are carried on. concepcion, a province of southern chile, lying between the provinces of maule and nuble on the n. and bio-bio on the s., and extending from the pacific to the argentine boundary. its outline is very irregular, the itata river forming its northern boundary, and the bio-bio and one of its tributaries a part of its southern boundary. area (estimated) 3252 sq. m.; pop. (1895) 188,190. concepcion is the most important province of southern chile because of its advantageous commercial position, fertility and productive industries. its coast is indented by two large well-sheltered bays, talcahuano and arauco, the former having the ports of talcahuano, penco and el tome, and the latter coronel and lota. its railway communications are good, and the bio-bio, which crosses its s.w. corner, has 100 m. of navigable channel. the province produces wheat and manufactures flour for export; its wines are reputed the best in chile, cattle are bred in large numbers, wool is produced, and considerable timber is shipped. near the coast are extensive deposits of coal, which is shipped from lota and coronel, the former being the site of the most productive coal-mine in south america. the climate is mild and the rainfall is abundant. large copper-smelting and glass works have been established at lota because of its coal resources. the valley of the itata is largely devoted to vine cultivation, and the port of this district, el tome, is noted for its wine vaults and trade. it also possesses a small woollen factory. the principal towns are on the coast and had in 1895 the following populations: talcahuano, 10,431; lota, 9797 (largely operatives in the mines and smelting works); coronel, 4575; and el tome, 3977. concepcion, a city of southern chile, capital of a province and department of the same name, on the right bank of the bio-bio river, 7 m. above its mouth, and 355 m. s.s.w. of santiago by rail. pop. (1895) 39,837; (1902, estimated) 49,351. it is the commercial centre of a rich agricultural region, but because of obstructions at the mouth of the bio-bio its trade passes in great part through the port of talcahuano, 8 m. distant by rail. the small port of penco, situated on the same bay and 10 m. distant by rail, also receives a part of the trade because of official restrictions at talcahuano. concepcion is one of the southern termini of the chilean central railway, by which it is connected with santiago to the n., with valdivia and puerto montt to the s., and with the port of talcahuano. another line extends southward through the chilean coal-producing districts to curanilhue, crossing the bio-bio by a steel viaduct 6000 ft. long on 62 skeleton piers; and a short line of 10 m. runs northward to penco. the bio-bio is navigable above the city for 100 m. and considerable traffic comes through this channel. the districts tributary to concepcion produce wheat, wine, wool, cattle, coal and timber, and among the industrial establishments of the city are flour mills, furniture and carriage factories, distilleries and breweries. the city is built on a level plain but little above the sea-level, and is laid out in regular squares with broad streets. it is an episcopal see with a cathedral and several fine churches, and is the seat of a court of appeal. the city was founded by pedro de valdivia in 1550, and received the singular title of "la concepcion del nuevo extremo." it was located on the bay of talcahuano where the town of penco now stands, about 9 m. from its present site, but was destroyed by earthquakes in 1570, 1730 and 1751, and was then (1755) removed to the margin of the bio-bio. in 1835 it was again laid in ruins, a graphic description of which is given by charles darwin in _the voyage of h.m.s. beagle_. the city was twice burned by the araucanians during their long struggle against the spanish colonists. concepcion, or villa concepcion, the principal town and a river port of northern paraguay, on the paraguay river, 138 m. (234 m. by river) n. of asuncion, and about 345 ft. above sea-level. pop. (1895, estimate) 10,000, largely indians and mestizos. it is an important commercial centre, and a port of call for the river steamers trading with the brazilian town of corumba, matto grosso. it is the principal point for the exportation of paraguay tea, or "yerba mate" (_ilex paraguayensis_). the town has a street railway and telephone service, a national college, a public school, a market, and some important commercial establishments. the neighbouring country is sparsely settled and produces little except forest products. across the river, in the paraguayan chaco, is an english missionary station, whose territory extends inland among the indians for many miles. concept[1] (lat. _conceptus_, a thought, from _concipere_, to take together, combine in thought; ger. _begriff_), in philosophy, a term applied to a general idea derived from and considered apart from the particulars observed by the senses. the mental process by which this idea is obtained is called abstraction (q.v.). by the comparison, for instance, of a number of boats, the mind abstracts a certain common quality or qualities in virtue of which the mind affirms the general idea of "boat." thus the connotation of the term "boat," being the sum of those qualities in respect of which all boats are regarded as alike, whatever their individual peculiarities may be, is described as a "concept." the psychic process by which a concept is affirmed is called "conception," a term which is often loosely used in a concrete sense for "concept" itself. it is also used even more loosely as synonymous in the widest sense with "idea," "notion." strictly, however, it is contrasted with "perception," and implies the mental reconstruction and combination of sense-given data. thus when one carries one's thoughts back to a series of events, one constructs a psychic whole made up of parts which take definite shape and character by their mutual interrelations. this process is called _conceptual synthesis_, the possibility of which is a _sine qua non_ for the exchange of information by speech and writing. it should be noticed that this (very common) psychological interpretation of "conception" differs from the metaphysical or general philosophical definition given above, in so far as it includes mental presentations in which the universal is not specifically distinguished from the particulars. some psychologists prefer to restrict the term to the narrower use which excludes all mental states in which particulars are cognized, even though the universal be present also. in biology conception is the coalescence of the male and female generative elements, producing pregnancy. footnote: [1] the word "conceit" in its various senses ("idea," "plan," "fancy," "imagination," and, by modern extension, an overweening sense of one's own value) is likewise derived ultimately from the latin _concipere_. it appears to have been formed directly from the english derivative "conceive" on the analogy of "deceit" from "deceive." according to the _new english dictionary_ there is no intermediate form in old french. conceptualism (from "concept"), in philosophy, a term applied by modern writers to a scholastic theory of the nature of universals, to distinguish it from the two extremes of nominalism and realism. the scholastic philosophers took up the old greek problem as to the nature of true reality--whether the general idea or the particular object is more truly real. between realism which asserts that the _genus_ is more real than the _species_, and that particulars have no reality, and nominalism according to which _genus_ and _species_ are merely names (_nomina, flatus vocis_), conceptualism takes a mean position. the conceptualist holds that universals have a real existence, but only in the mind, as the concepts which unite the individual things: e.g. there is in the mind a general notion or idea of boats, by reference to which the mind can decide whether a given object is, or is not, a boat. on the one hand "boat" is something more than a mere sound with a purely arbitrary conventional significance; on the other it has, apart from particular things to which it applies, no reality; its reality is purely abstract or conceptual. this theory was enunciated by abelard in opposition to roscellinus (nominalist) and william of champeaux (realist). he held that it is only by becoming a predicate that the class-notion or general term acquires reality. thus similarity (_conformitas_) is observed to exist between a number of objects in respect of a particular quality or qualities. this quality becomes real as a mental concept when it is predicated of all the objects possessing it ("quod de pluribus natum est praedicari"). hence abelard's theory is alternatively known as sermonism (_sermo_, "predicate"). his statement of this position oscillates markedly, inclining sometimes towards the nominalist, sometimes towards the realist statement, using the arguments of the one against the other. hence he is described by some as a realist, by others as a nominalist. when he comes to explain that objective similarity in things which is represented by the class-concept or general term, he adopts the theological platonic view that the ideas which are the archetypes of the qualities exist in the mind of god. they are, therefore, _ante rem, in re_ and _post rem_, or, as avicenna stated it, _universalia ante multiplicitatem, in multiplicitate, post multiplicitatem_. (see logic, metaphysics.) concert (through the french from lat. con-, with, and _certare_, to strive), a term meaning, in general, co-operation, agreement or union; the more specific usages being, in music, for a public performance by instrumentalists, vocalists or both combined, and in diplomacy, for an understanding or agreement for common action between two or more states, whether defined by treaty or not. the term "concert of europe" has been commonly applied, since the congress of vienna (1814-1815), to the european powers consulting or acting together in questions of common interest. (see alliance and europe: _history_.)