abstraction
Sign in to saveAbstraction is the process of generalizing rules and concepts from specific examples, literal (real or concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods. The result of the process, an abstraction, is a concept that acts as a common noun for all subordinate concepts and connects any related concepts as a group, field, or category.
AI overview
Abstraction is the process of pulling out common patterns and rules from specific examples to create general concepts that apply more broadly. These resulting concepts act as mental categories that group related things together, making it easier to understand and work with large amounts of information.
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Article
28 sectionsContents
- Origins
- History
- Themes
- Compression
- Instantiation
- Material process
- Ontological status
- Physicality
- Referencing and referring
- Simplification and ordering
- Thought processes
- As used in different disciplines
- In art
- In computer science
- In history
- In linguistics
- In mathematics
- In music
- In neurology
- In philosophy
- In psychology
- In social theory
- See also
- References
- Citations
- Sources
- Further reading
- External links
Abstraction is the process of generalizing rules and concepts from specific examples, literal (real or concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods. The result of the process, an abstraction, is a concept that acts as a common noun for all subordinate concepts and connects any related concepts as a group, field, or category.
Abstractions and levels of abstraction play an important role in the theory of general semantics originated by Alfred Korzybski. Anatol Rapoport wrote "Abstracting is a mechanism by which an infinite variety of experiences can be mapped on short noises (words)." An abstraction can be constructed by filtering the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon, selecting only those aspects that are relevant for a particular purpose. For example, abstracting a leather soccer ball to the more general idea of a ball selects only the information on general ball attributes and behavior, excluding but not eliminating the other phenomenal and cognitive characteristics of that particular ball. In a type–token distinction, a type (e.g., a 'ball') is more abstract than its tokens (e.g., 'that leather soccer ball').