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Abstract. Abstract What is abstract concept

They have similarities and differences.

That in which objects are similar or different to each other, acts as their signs .

Signs that express the fundamental nature (essence) of objects, which distinguishes them from objects of other types, are reflected in the process of cognition as essential features .

Content of the concept is revealed as a set of essential features of objects reflected in the concept.

Depending on the content, they can be concrete and abstract, positive and negative, irrelevant and correlative.

For example, the scope of the concept " student” are all students of universities, the scope of the concept of “state constitution” is all the constitutions of states existing in the world.

The content and scope of the concept are interrelated. This relationship is expressed in the law of the inverse relationship between the volume and content of concepts , which is formulated as follows: If the volume of a concept increases, then its content decreases accordingly, and vice versa.».

Let's take, for example, two concepts "student" and "student of polytechnic university". The scope of the first concept is greater than the scope of the second concept, since there are generally more students than students of polytechnic institutes. And the content of the second concept is wider than the content of the first, since in addition to the main feature "to be a student of a university", a specific feature "to study at a polytechnic institute" is added here.

Depending on the scope of the concept can be single, general, empty.

Let us consider general, singular and empty concepts in more detail.

General concepts are called, the volumes of which include two or more homogeneous objects (phenomena, events).

single concepts are called, the volumes of which include only one subject (phenomenon, event).

empty concepts are called, the volumes of which do not include a single subject (phenomena, events).

Example:

The concept of " city» — general , since the number of cities that exist on Earth is more than two.

The concept of " largest city in the world» — singular, since such a property "to be the most big city in the world" can possess only one single object.

The concept of " round square», « centaur» — empty(or with zero volume), since in reality we will not find a single object that would have the sign "to be a round square", "to be a centaur".

Generic concepts can be registered or unregistered.

registered a concept is called in which the number of objects conceivable in it lends itself to real accounting, registration, for example, “cities of Russia”, “works of L.N. Tolstoy”.

General concepts referring to an indefinite number of objects are called unregistered , for example, "man" - all people who lived, live and will live are thought.

In the process of reasoning, general concepts can be used in a collective and divisive sense. If the statement refers to the whole class of objects, taken in their unity, and is not inapplicable to each object of the class separately, then such a use of concepts is called collective .

If the statement refers to each object of the class, then such a use of the concept is called dividing .

Example:

Expressing the idea "All people are mortal", we use the concept of "people"in a divisive sensebecause this statement applies to every person.

In the statement "average life expectancy in Russia is 70 years" we use the concept of "average life expectancy in Russia"in a collective sense, since it is not applicable to each inhabitant of Russia separately, since individual life expectancy can be more or less than 70 years, and in some cases it can coincide with this statement.

The concepts in which summarized specific objects and phenomena of reality for one reason or another are called specific . For example, the concepts of "book", "plant" are specific.

Concepts in which the properties of objects or relations between them are thought are called abstract . For example, the concepts of "whiteness", "courage" are abstract concepts.

Positive and negative concepts.

Concepts that reflect the inherent features of the subject are called positive . Examples of positive concepts can be: "literate", "speaking English", "order".

Concepts in which the features that make up the content of positive concepts are denied are called negative . In Russian, negative concepts are usually expressed by words with particles “not”, “without”; in words of foreign origin - most often with words with a negative prefix "a": "asymmetry", "amorphous", "immoral". The concepts of "illiterate", "not speaking English", "disorder" are negative.

Irrelevant and relative concepts.

Irrelevant concepts describe objects that exist separately and therefore are perceived without connection with other objects. In the content of such concepts there is no indication of the relationship to other objects, for example: "tree", "book", "state".

IN correlative concepts objects are reflected that exist only interconnectedly and simultaneously with each other and therefore cannot be thought of one without the other. For example, the concept of "parents" and "children", "boss" and "subordinate", "cause and effect".

To determine what kind this or that concept belongs to means giving it a logical characteristic. The logical characterization of concepts clarifies their meaning, the use of words that describe these concepts.

Specific concepts - these are concepts that denote integral objects or their classes that have independence. Reflect objects, processes, phenomena: things "table", living beings "Human", fantasy products "centaur", events "war", natural phenomena "earthquake". In Russian, words expressing specific concepts, as a rule, can be used in the plural: diamonds, oaks, lawyers, explosions, wars. Designats (volume) are not difficult to determine. If a set of features that make up the semantic meaning is known, then it is possible to point to objects that have these features.

abstract concepts - these are concepts that denote properties or relations abstracted from objects, conceivable as independent objects. That is, we do not think of the object itself, but of any of the signs, taken separately. Properties of objects or relations between objects do not exist independently, without these objects. Properties: "hardness"(diamond), "durability"(oak), "competence"(lawyer) "blue"(seas); relationship: " equality"(women and men), social partnership"(between employees and employers) citizenship"(a stable legal relationship of a person with the state, expressed in the totality of their mutual rights and obligations)," friendship"(between people). In Russian, words expressing abstract concepts do not have a plural: they do not say: "A diamond has a lot of hardness" or "Oak has a lot of durability", A "A lawyer has a lot of all sorts of competencies."

One should not confuse concrete concepts with singular ones, and abstract ones with general ones. General concepts can be both concrete and abstract: "intermediary"- general, specific; A "mediation» - general, abstract. A single concept can be abstract: "United Nations"- single, concrete; "Courage of Captain Gastello" singular, abstract.

It is not difficult to determine the designates of specific concepts, if a set of features that make up the semantic meaning is known, then you can point to the objects that this concept denotes. But with abstract concepts, everything is different, what is denoted by them does not exist in material form, they, having a semantic meaning, do not have an objective meaning. It is believed that the content of an abstract concept is the property or relationship that it denotes, and the volume is the set of objects that have this property, or the set of objects between which there is a certain relationship. Therefore, the whiteness of the snow and the whiteness of the tablecloth should be considered as designata of the concept "white", and the equality of the values X and Y and the equality of the citizens of the country before the law - as designata of the concept "equality".

The division of concepts into concrete and abstract - relatively. If an abstract concept reflecting a property is used in relation to the objects themselves that have this property, then it becomes plural. The concept of " sweetness"- abstract, if only property is conceived in it, and "oriental sweets"- this is a specific concept applied to the products themselves that have this property. Abstract concepts can be part of more complex concrete ones and vice versa. They are distinguished by the leading concept: "lawyer incompetence"- abstract, although it includes concrete as an element - "lawyer", A "a victim of incompetence"- concrete, although it contains the abstract - "incompetence".

Examples concrete and abstract concepts: "citizen" - "citizenship", "employee" - "professionalism", "salary" - "payment", "court" - "conviction".

Concepts irrelative and correlative

Irrelevant concepts – these are such concepts that designate objects in themselves, regardless of the relation they are to other objects: "farmer", "rule", "village", "justice", "nature". An irrelevant concept is retained by the object from the moment of its naming until the moment of its disappearance (“man” in relation to a separate human individual is retained by him from birth to death).

Correlative concepts – these are concepts that designate not independent objects, but objects as members of a relation. One object of thought presupposes the existence of another and is impossible without it, therefore they have meaning as long as this relation exists, and lose it as soon as this relation is destroyed: concepts "parents" And "children": one cannot be a son or daughter without parents, in turn, it is children who make us fathers or mothers; "groom - bride", "boss - subordinate", "plaintiff - defendant", "right - duty", "judge - defendant", "plaintiff - defendant".

Example: concepts "three" And "five"- irrelevant, but if you draw a horizontal line between them, you get three-fifths fraction- 3 is the “numerator”, and the number 5 is the “denominator” - these are already correlative concepts. In order to revive them as independent numbers, it is necessary to destroy the relation, as a result of which its moments - the numerator and denominator - will cease to exist. The terms "generation" and "destruction", to characterize correlative concepts, have not a physical, but a logical meaning.

from lat. abstraho - distract, exclude, separate) - necessary condition Cognition through the formation of "secondary images" of reality (its information models), in particular, such as perceptions, ideas, concepts, theories, etc. In the process of abstraction, information is selected and processed in order to replace a directly given empirical image with another, not directly given, but implied and conceived as an abstract object and commonly referred to by the same term "abstraction".

OUTLINE OF HISTORY. The modern concept of abstraction goes back to Aristotle, according to which abstraction is a method of deliberately one-sided study of reality, a subjective method of mental division of the whole and the assumption that its parts are separately existing. In principle, such an assumption does not involve “any error” and is objectively justified by the diversity of properties (aspects) of the whole, sometimes so different that they cannot become the subject of one science. Science, according to Aristotle, explores the general, and the general is known through abstraction. Therefore, abstraction is not only the basic premise scientific knowledge, but also "creates science". In this sense, the transient phenomena of experience are not important in themselves, but to the extent that they participate in some kind of abstraction. Aristotle also distinguished empirical abstractions from theoretical ones, believing that the latter are necessary where what is comprehended by thought and thought itself are inseparable from each other (as, for example, in mathematics, where knowledge and the subject of knowledge essentially coincide).

This epistemological concept of abstraction did not, however, develop either in the Hellenic-Roman or in medieval philosophy. Scholasticism, including Arabic-speaking Neoplatonism, reduced the topic of abstraction essentially to the topic of universals, linking it with the Platonic concept of acide (“invisible”, spiritual principle), which corresponded philosophical thought oriented to logos, but not to physis. When the medieval “book science” was replaced by the experimental science of the new time, the theological and ontological view of abstraction was replaced by a psychological one: abstraction was now presented as a forced “action of the soul” to develop general (generally significant) concepts, the need for which is due to the imperfection of the mind, unable to cognize otherwise. (indivisible) "nature of things". Both sensationalism and rationalism of the 17th and 18th centuries. were almost unanimous that the "objectification" of abstractions not only obscures the facts of real processes from the eyes of the researcher, but also leads to the hypostasis of fictitious entities and meaningless ideas. A well-known expression of this position was Kant's demand for "principled exclusion" for abstractions if they claim to have any meaning.

Philosophy of the early 19th century. little has changed in this assessment. In particular, Hegel, recognizing abstraction as the first element of the spiritual exploration of reality and including it in everyday and scientific experience (even a simple observation, according to Hegel, needs the ability to abstraction), at the same time attributed abstraction to "formal thought", alien to philosophical method, and condemned the "abstract" for being one-sided and empty. Only by the middle of the 19th century. the interpretation of abstraction goes beyond "abstract thought". Abstraction returns to its scientific Aristotelian meaning. With its help, not only statics is described, but also the dynamics of natural phenomena and social life. In the humanities, this applies primarily to the philosophical method, in which the objective dialectic of development is realized through the development of the subjective dialectic of concepts, and therefore the principle of abstraction plays a leading role in it (K. Marx). But even in the natural science methodology of those years, which was essentially far from the conscious dialectic of concepts, the use of abstract models “achieves amazing results in explaining natural phenomena” (V. I. Vernadsky). As a result, the spiritual setting of the post-scholastic reformation (with its slogan: "instead of abstractions - experience") is gradually replaced by a methodological compromise, when abstract objects are recognized as representatives of realities necessary for the expression of objective truths. Even positivism to a certain extent accepted this compromise, not only giving abstractions a leading role in scientific research, but also recognizing for them a certain “kind of reality” (E. Mach). At the same time, the first classification of abstractions appeared, and the deliberate use of definitions through abstraction.

Philosophy of science in the 20th century again returns to the controversy about the objective significance of abstractions. This time, the reason was, on the one hand, relativistic trends (trends) in physics, on the other hand, the transfinite principles of introducing abstractions in mathematical set theory, which gave rise to a certain “feeling of anxiety about the dependence of pure logic and mathematics on the ontology of Platonism” (Beth E. W. The foundatins of mathematics, Amst, 1959, p. 471). Criticism of these tendencies and principles begins a deep differentiation of methodological approaches and ways of thinking (according to the type of abstractions used) in modern scientific (especially mathematical) knowledge, the desire to overcome the “crisis of foundations” that has arisen not only by technical means of improving scientific theories, but also by one or another solution of epistemological problems of abstraction;

OUTLINE OF THE THEORY. The simplest version of abstraction is the act of abstraction, more precisely, the act of selective reflection or interpretation of data. Given the same data, various acts of distraction are possible in different situations. And although the arbitrariness of abstractions is indisputable, they are usually justified to the extent that abstraction leads to success in cognition or practical activity. An arbitrary act of distraction can only accidentally produce such a result. For example, when identifying, as a rule, they choose only such grounds for identification that would endow the abstraction of identification with a certain epistemological meaning. Usually this is determined by the goal, or task, or some other setting. In general, the structure of an abstract image (abstract object) and its restructuring (when changing the setting) essentially depend on the setting. At the same time, abstraction can be conscious, reflected at the level of thinking, or unconscious, carried out at the level of the functional properties of receptors (sense organs, devices). However, in any case, the abstraction must give a certain "partial image" of an almost boundless set of possibilities (the flow of external data).

The interpretation of abstraction as distraction suggests either a transitive or intransitive form of the verb "distract". Although the positions of these forms in the language itself are equal, their semantic roles are not the same. Usually (but not always) they express additional aspects of abstraction: the transitive form fixes attention on a part isolated from the whole, intransitive, on the contrary, on the whole, devoid of a part. The first (positive) aspect introduces the informational (abstract) image directly, while the second (negative) one only indirectly, through the incompleteness of the base, leaving the completion (finishing) of the image to idealization or imagination. That is why the abstract is often characterized as negative, "only as a moment of something real" (Hegel). This division of the aspects of abstraction, generally speaking, is arbitrary, but the choice of one or another of them had a noticeable impact on the value attitude towards abstraction. Thus, Aristotle saw the epistemological value of abstraction in its solution of the positive task of cognition, while Kant, on the contrary, recognized only negative work for abstraction, attributing the solution of a positive task to the account of reflection. These polar points of view emphasize the importance of understanding abstractions in the context of modern scientific practice, since the habit of highlighting the eliminative (negative) aspect of abstraction still dominates its dictionary definitions: the common meaning of the term "abstraction" is a literal translation from Latin.

Of course, the pure act of distraction alone is not capable of providing a useful meaningful image. It is necessary to analyze sufficient grounds for abstraction - subjective, on the one hand, and objective, on the other, under which the information “captured” by the process of abstraction and included in its result could be considered actually independent of other data and therefore extraneous for this abstraction. The search for an objectively outsider, more precisely, finding out exactly which characteristics of the whole (or environment) are outsiders for the information image, is one of the main questions of abstraction. In part, it coincides with the notorious question of essential properties, but only in its strictly scientific formulation, when by essential they mean such definable properties of an object that are capable of fully representing (replacing) this object in a certain epistemological situation. This confirms the relativity of the "essence of the matter", represented by abstraction, because the properties of objects in themselves are neither essential nor extraneous and can only be so for something and in relation to something. In addition, the abstract image is realized by abstraction with a completeness that does not exceed the completeness of the available data. And this is clearly not enough to generate high-order abstract objects created specifically ad usum theoreticae. So, the first empirical concepts about the figures of material bodies in the observed space - "an abstraction of a sensual figure" - are created inductively, abstracting from all the properties of these bodies, except for shapes and sizes. But geometric images in the proper sense are obtained by the logical reconstruction of inductive concepts, replenishing the empirical properties with the theoretical-point (in the set-theoretic sense) "arrangement" of figures, the possibility of their continuous (congruent, affine, topological) transformations, in general, with all the properties that are necessary for the formulation or proofs of geometric theorems. Obviously, abstract objects of this order are only genetically related to distraction. Their content is not exhausted by the data of experience. Here we are talking about a certain interpretation of reality, about understanding it “in laws”, which in itself is impossible without the generation of new sematics, without adding experience to the data. new information, which does not follow logically from these data. But as soon as an abstraction is declared scientific, it is limited in its arbitrariness not so much by its correspondence with facts as by the fact that it "cannot introduce any logical contradictions" (F. Klein). Compliance with the specified restriction on the use of abstractions significantly distinguishes the norm of science from the norm of art, where it is permissible not only to “depart from the fact”, but also to go to an internal contradiction in depicting facts in order to solve a certain artistic problem.

It is no secret that in the system of scientific ideas, abstraction does not always obey the logic of empirical facts. Moreover, dogma can also serve as a basis for accepting one or another abstraction. Such, in particular, is the postulate of ancient science about the perfection of circular motion (“the circle dogma”), which put abstractions over the facts of astronomical observations and for a long time determined not only the nature of the first theories of celestial mechanics, but also the approach to the mathematical description of physical phenomena through exponentials. And yet, in general, in scientific terms, abstraction is dominated by the ideology of empiricism. For theoretical natural science, this is obvious. But even a mathematician, when there is a need to justify an abstraction, does not neglect the opportunity to present this abstraction “from the visual side”, to find its prototype in sensory experience. This does not mean, of course, a real exclusion of abstraction, but it allows us to understand the genesis of abstraction, its connection with what can already be precisely “attached” to an empirical fact.

By abstracting from empirical data, one obtains first-order abstractions. They are also called real. Each subsequent step from these abstractions generates abstractions of a higher order than the first. They are called ideal. This scale of orders is not, of course, absolute, just as the criterion for distinguishing abstractions from non-abstractions once and for all is not absolute either. At least in the field of scientific knowledge, "empirical" (concrete) and "theoretical" (abstract) are correlative concepts, and an alternative between them is possible only through abstraction. True, in the process of cognition, the concrete always has an exoteric meaning. It is considered and explained in the aspect of "abstract reality", since any "fact only in abstraction can be known by thought" (A. I. Herzen). In turn, the abstract, on the contrary, is always esoteric. It is an attribute of thinking, representing the ideal moment of reality as the content of concepts. The objectivity of this ideality is revealed, as a rule, in applications, i.e., in general, everywhere where abstractions are applied. Then the epistemological attitude turns around: the inductive path "experience-abstraction" is replaced by the deductive path "abstraction-experience". That is why, when ascending to high-order abstract objects, care must be taken that the return path to their "exclusion" is somehow provided.

For scientific cognition, the possibility of turning around a relation, of making abstraction an independent starting point for research, regardless of whether its empirical equivalent is found or not, is the most important condition for development. The same can be said about logic, which only in the sphere of abstractions feels at home. This possibility allows not only to combine observation and experience with logical deduction, but also to make up for the fundamental absence of an experimental basis, which then “should be replaced by the power of abstraction” (K. Marx). And from here there is already a direct path to the axiomatic method in science, which in turn becomes an instrument of abstraction and analysis, both as a meaningful axiomatics that retains a clear connection with empirical experience, and as a formal axiomatics that does not preserve such a connection. In the latter case, the significance of the method is especially obvious, because the transition from meaningful to formal axiomatics is a far-reaching generalization, requiring, as a rule, abstractions of a higher order than those that are dispensed with in a meaningful interpretation of concepts. Therefore, only formal axiomatics reveals the difference between the intuitive meaning of abstraction, implied in the language of the researcher, and their generalized meaning, encoded in the language of formal theory. Hence, as a consequence, the ambiguity of abstraction, elusive on the inductive path.

The philosophical idea of the intentional incompleteness of knowledge, due to abstraction, with the consistent implementation of an abstract point of view, is supplemented by the requirement of its completeness with respect to the scope of abstraction. The question of the content of this region, its depth or its boundaries, of course, does not always succeed in finding an a priori answer. But it is precisely the problem of the completeness of abstraction that naturally leads to the epistemological concept of the interval of abstraction as a characteristic of the freedom (permissibility) of abstraction or as a measure of the information capacity of abstraction, expressing a kind of "abstraction concept", the conditions for its "model realizability". In this sense, the interval of abstraction does not depend on "external" (empirical) determination, but is determined by its own logic of abstraction as "a theme that forms the basis for implementation" (Hegel).

The development and analysis of abstractions is a special goal and task of science, at least insofar as "every science investigates the general" (Aristotle). The desire for community is consonant with the desire for order. And if one of the tasks of science is to "discover" the facts, then another, no less important, is to put the facts in order. Therefore, the search for generalizing points of view begins with the search for patterns that are fixed in the abstraction of "scientific law", which gives "a sort of natural coordinate system, relative to which we can order phenomena" (W. Heisenberg). A simplified image of reality without "side features" or "a mass of details" is only the initial work of abstraction, which in its truly scientific manifestation goes much further than what can be extracted from the data of experience. The thesis that cognition through abstraction distorts (roughens) reality runs into the objection that the true interests of cognition are directed, as a rule, “beyond” the present experience to the invariant “essence of the matter” represented in abstraction. In itself, a pure act of abstraction only precedes the search for such invariants, masking the further non-trivial process of mental analysis of the relationship between abstraction and reality.

Apparently, there is no area of knowledge where abstraction would not serve as a rational basis for cognition, although in different areas the abstractions used and the features of their use are, of course, different. The most developed system of abstractions belongs to mathematics, which is essentially the science of abstractions. Natural science, to the extent that it uses mathematics, borrows from its abstractions, adding its own to those borrowed. But at the same time, there are also general scientific abstractions that are necessary both at the first steps in the formation of concepts and at all levels of the formation of knowledge about natural and social life. That is why abstractions are not "scaffolding", which, after the construction of any branch of knowledge, can and even must be discarded. It is not only the form, but the very essence of science.

Lit .: Worldview and methodological problems of scientific abstraction. M., 1960; Gorsky D. P. Questions of abstraction and the formation of concepts. M-, 1961; Rozov M. A. Scientific abstraction and its types. Novosibirsk, 1965; Petrov Yu. A. Logical problems of abstractions of infinity and feasibility. M., 1967; Yanovskaya SA Methodological problems of science. M., 1972; Lazarev V. On the nature of scientific abstractions. M., 1971; He is. Abstraction and reality. - "Bulletin of Moscow State University", 1974; No. 5; Vilenksh N. Ya., Shreider Yu. A. The concept of mathematics and objects of science. - "VD", 1974, No. 2; Ilyenkov E. V. dialectical logic. Essay on history and theory. M., 1984; Novoselov M. M. About abstractions of indistinguishability, individuation and constancy, - In the book: Creative nature of scientific knowledge, M., 1984; He is. Abstraction and scientific method.-In the book: Actual questions of the logic of scientific knowledge. M., 1987; Sclmeider H.l. Historische und systematische Untersuchungen zur Abstraction. Erlangen, 1970; Wllemm /. La logique et le monde sensiable. Etude sur les theories contemporaines de labstraction. P., 1971; Logic and abstraction. Goteborg, 1986; Pollard St. What is abstraction? - "Nous", 1987, vol. 21, No. 2; Roeper P. Principles of abstraction for events and processes.-«J. of philosophy. Logic, 1987, vol. 16, No. 3.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. Think of boring classes at school or university that made you sleepy. What did they have in common? The abundance of scientific concepts, and vague formulations.

An introductory theoretical lesson involves working with abstractions. Because of them, he is so generalized, as if cut off from the subject.

What is abstraction? Why is she needed? And how does she relate to others? complex concepts: abstraction, abstract thinking? In this article we will analyze all the questions on the shelves. Go!

Abstraction and abstraction is a simplification of reality

Abstraction is a thought that was born in the process of abstraction (the process of eliminating and separating the insignificant at the moment in order to see the main thing). The frustrated reader must have thought: "Well, again, there is no clear definition, but only a vague phrase." Be patient, there is very little left.

The word "abstractio" has three variants of translation from Latin:

abstraction;
exception;
department.

These are mental operations that the brain conducts over objects in the real world in the process of abstraction. And there are abstractions.

Here are a few examples for understanding.

You went outside and looked up. What did you think? "A gas envelope with five layers of water vapor contains 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and so on." Yes, you can go crazy!
To prevent this from happening, you are distracted from the non-essential aspects, properties and relationships of the object. Throw out of the head the layers of the atmosphere, the chemical composition and form general thought- "sky".
So, "sky" - this is abstraction. You can go further and highlight other essential features of the object: color, weather, time of day. Then such abstract concepts will arise: “blue sky”, “cloudy sky”, “night sky”.
At the end of the month, you withdrew your salary from your bank card. Now your general thought is “money”. This is also an abstraction. In the process of abstraction, you mentally excluded (separated) the non-essential connections of the object.
For example, connections with a banking institution and an employer. Do you wonder how long the title units have traveled before they ended up in your wallet? Hardly. What matters is that it's money.

So you constantly abstracting and generate abstractions. Without this process, the head would simply burst from thoughts.

Then why is it so hard to sit through boring lectures?

Abstract concepts are the highest form of abstraction

It is possible to generalize not only the objects of the real world, but also the abstractions themselves. This is how they are formed high-order abstractions are abstract concepts. They are operated by fundamental and exact sciences to describe complex patterns.

Consider a simplified example of how an abstract concept is born.

Atmospheric precipitation from ice crystals fell to the ground. This is snow. The sky is completely covered with clouds. The sky and snow are white. The street is white.

"Whiteness" is an abstract concept. Try to generalize it. Will not work. Other examples of abstract concepts: truth, justice, time, matter, information.

From a simple abstraction to its highest form, sometimes there are so many mental stages that the abstract concept turns out to be very divorced from reality and difficult to perceive.

That is why it is so difficult to listen to the theoretical lectures of the teacher.

Types of abstractions

Abstraction is a thought process that pursues a specific goal. Isolate some significant feature, get a general picture of the phenomenon or develop an ideal scheme.

Depending on the purpose of abstraction, there are three types of abstractions.

insulating.
The goal is to highlight the essential feature of the object and focus on it. There is an orange on the table. You notice that the fruit is orange or sweet and sour.
Generalizing.
The goal is to get a general picture of the phenomenon. To do this, you are distracted from private signs. An example of a generalized abstraction is mathematical equations. They are decided according to certain rules. It makes no sense to mentally "split" mathematical equations into numbers, plus, minus, equal sign, variable.
You have probably noticed that success in solving any mathematical problem depends on the ability to look at the problem from above, to see the big picture.
Idealization.
The goal is to develop an idealized scheme of the object, discarding irrelevant real attributes. Idealization is a method of cognition, without which the exact and natural sciences cannot do. Remember the notorious "spherical horse in a vacuum."
In reality, there are no isolated points, straight lines, time. Separated from a specific object, they cannot be touched or measured. These are abstractions that are used in mathematics and physics to describe the patterns of real phenomena.

If abstraction is the process of developing abstractions, then abstract thinking is the operation of them.

Strict examiner criticizes young man answering too vaguely: "Let's get closer to the subject of the ticket."

Why is the student throwing smart phrases like that? To hide gaps in knowledge, or even their complete absence. And this is the essence of abstract thinking.

Human knowledge about the real world is not complete, exhaustive, specific. But he needs to somehow navigate among unknown phenomena and things, so he thinks abstractly.

If there was no concept of time, how would people arrange meetings? How would scientists describe new galaxies without having an idea of the shape, distance, speed, substances? How about without general concepts did the sciences interact?

Abstract thinking is a form of cognition that allows you to get out of the intellectual impasse, at least at a generalized level, describe unknown phenomena. With its help, they build guesses and see the problem from different angles.

You witnessed a family quarrel. Your friend's wife calls on the phone, cries, screams, swears. What conclusions does the brain make?

Concrete thinking: friend's wife is hysterical;
Abstract thinking: perhaps a friend offended his wife, she endured for a long time, but now she cannot restrain her emotions.

Brief Summary

So, speaking in very simple terms, the term in the title of this article is a general idea that brings us closer to the essence of the object (phenomenon).

Abstraction is an intermediary between a person and a complex world with its secrets and laws.

It is foolish to oppose concrete concepts to abstract ones, because without the latter one cannot itself.

Good luck to you! See you soon on the blog pages site

ABSTRACTION

the cognitive process is one of the main operations of thinking; consists in highlighting certain features of the studied integral object and abstracting from the rest. The result - the construction of a mental product: concepts, models, theories, etc. - is also called abstraction. Abstraction primarily appears in the direct sensory-figurative reflection of the environment, when some of its properties become guidelines for perception and action, while others are ignored.

Abstraction serves as the basis for the processes of generalization and concept formation. It is a necessary condition for categorization. It forms generalized images of reality, which make it possible to single out the connections and relations of objects that are significant for a certain activity. When essential features are discarded, abstraction becomes superficial and of little substance; here, empty reasonings and concepts divorced from reality are called abstract. True to reality, abstraction consists in such a simplification of the indivisible variety of phenomena, which makes thought more capacious - thanks to its focus on what is essential for a given cognitive situation. The criterion of truth and productivity of abstraction is practice. Empirical and theoretical levels of thinking correspond to formal and meaningful abstraction.

ABSTRACTION

from lat. Abstractio - distraction) is one of the main processes of human mental activity, which allows one to mentally isolate and turn individual properties, aspects, elements or states of an object into an independent object of consideration. Sometimes, A. is understood only as the result of this process of abstraction, i.e., already isolated and independent, in a "pure form" the property of the object being considered. The ability to A. allows a person to mentally focus on such a property, the stable selection of which serves as a condition for solving the corresponding task (in this regard, A. is closely connected with the process of attention).

A. underlies the processes of generalization and formation of concepts. Empirical and theoretical levels of thinking correspond to formal and substantive A.

Formal A. consists in isolating such properties of an object that do not exist in themselves and independently of it. Such a separation and an isolated expression of its result is possible only in the mental plane (in A.). Thus, the geometric form of the body does not really exist in itself and cannot be separated from the body. But thanks to formal A., it is mentally singled out, fixed, for example, with the help of a drawing, and independently considered in its special properties. One of the main functions of such an analysis is to single out the general properties of a certain set of objects and to fix these properties of a c.-l. sign (most often verbal or drawing). A. of this kind is called generalizing. The complex of abstract properties (formal general) becomes a representative of the corresponding class of objects and makes it possible to distinguish this class from all others (for example, to distinguish all rectangular bodies from bodies of other shapes). This complex, fixed to.-l. sign becomes its value. On the basis of a system of interrelated meanings, empirical thinking builds various classifications, catalogs and determinants that allow a person to cover the sensory diversity of objects in an abbreviated form in accordance with their general properties. The meanings of everyday language words and special word-terms, created on the basis of formal alphabet, are carriers of such abbreviations.

"Abstract" as a result of A. means, therefore, something singled out, one-sided, simple, which has acquired relative independence within a complex system. It is opposed by the "concrete" as something integral, interconnected, multifaceted and complex. The developed thinking of a person initially forms various A., and then, on their basis, reproduces this integrity (mental concrete) by means of concretization. Such thinking is both abstract (carried out in the form of A.) and concrete (moves towards the concrete and reproduces it). This unity of opposite moments is the dialectic of theoretical thinking.

In psychology, the features of formal, or empirical, A., most often found in Everyday life and in teaching practice. It is the basis for the assimilation by children of knowledge that describes objects according to their external properties. This type of A. serves as a prerequisite for proper theoretical thinking, which also relies on meaningful A. Until now, the psychological characteristics of this type of A. and the patterns of its development in children have been poorly studied.

In the psychological and pedagogical literature, it is rightly noted that it is necessary to increase the level of abstractness of the thinking of schoolchildren for the full assimilation of modern scientific knowledge. As special studies show, in children it is necessary, if possible, to begin early to form the ability for accurate isolation and long-term mental retention of c.-l. essential properties and relations of objects for the purpose of their further study "in its pure form". Particularly promising is the education in students of the ability to form meaningful A. and to operate with them. In the process of learning, it is possible to form such a level and such types of A. that correspond to the basic requirements of modern scientific thinking. See Developmental Learning.

Abstraction

as the word itself indicates - there is an extraction or abstraction of some content (some meaning, a common feature, etc.) from a coherent context containing other elements, the combination of which, as something whole, is something unique or individual and therefore incomparable. Uniformity, originality and incomparability hinder knowledge; consequently, other elements associated with some content perceived as essential will be considered as irrelevant, "irrelevant".

Therefore, abstraction, or abstraction, is that form of mental activity that frees this content from its associations with irrelevant elements by distinguishing it from them, or, in other words, by differentiation (see). In a broad sense, everything is abstract that is extracted from its association with those elements that are considered irrelevant, not belonging to the represented meaning.

Abstraction is an activity inherent in psychological functions (see) in general. There is abstract thinking, as well as feeling, sensation and intuition (see). Abstract thinking singles out some content that is distinguished by mental, logical properties from an intellectually irrelevant environment. Abstract feeling does the same with content characterized by its sensuous evaluations; this applies to both sensation and intuition. There are, therefore, not only abstract thoughts, but also abstract feelings, which Sully designates as intellectual, aesthetic, and moral. /93- V.II, ch.16/ Nahlowsky (Nalovsky) adds here all the religious feelings. /94- S.48/ Abstract feelings would contribute, in my understanding, to the "higher" or "ideal" feelings of Nalovsky. I place abstract feelings in the same group as abstract thoughts. Abstract sensation should be designated as aesthetic sensation as opposed to sensual sensation (see), and abstract intuition as symbolic intuition as opposed to fantastic intuition (see fantasy and intuition).

In this work, I connect the concept of abstraction with the consideration of the psychoenergetic process associated with it. Taking an abstract attitude towards the object, I do not allow the object, as a whole, to influence me; I focus on one part of it, to the exclusion of all other irrelevant ones. My task is to get rid of the object as a single and unique whole and extract only one of the parts of this whole. Although the awareness of the whole is given to me, I nevertheless do not delve into this awareness, since my interest does not merge into the whole as such, but retreats from it, taking with it the part separated from it and delivering it to the world of my concepts, the world that already prepared or constellated to abstract this part of the object. (I cannot abstract from the object except by subjective conception.) "Interest" I understand as the energy, or libido (q.v.), which I attribute to the object as a value, or which the object attracts to itself against my will or in addition to my consciousness. Therefore, I visualize the process of abstraction visually, as the abstraction of libido from the object, as the flow of value from the object into a subjective abstract content. For me, therefore, abstraction is reduced to the energy depreciation of the object. In other words, abstraction is the introverting movement of the libido (see introversion).

I call an attitude (see) abstracting when, on the one hand, it has an introverted character, and on the other, it assimilates a part of the object, perceived as essential, by abstract contents at the disposal of the subject. The more abstract the content, the more unrepresentable it is. I adjoin Kant's understanding, according to which a concept is the more abstract, the more "the more differences inherent in things are omitted in it" /95-Bd.8, §6/, in the sense that abstraction at its highest level is absolutely removed from the object and thereby reaches utter unrepresentability; I call such an abstraction an idea (q.v.). On the contrary, abstraction, which still has representability or intuition, is a concrete (see) concept.

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