abstraction
noun
Abstraction — the idea distilled from a thousand particular things
Definition
A general concept formed by extracting common features from specific examples
In depth
An abstraction is what remains when the specific details of many examples are stripped away, leaving only the pattern they share — the redness common to every red thing, the justice common to every just act. It is thought's gift for generalization, and also its danger, since an abstraction can float free of the lived particulars that gave it birth.
Origin
The term comes from Latin abstrahere, to draw away or pull from, vividly literal in its origin: abstraction is a mental act of pulling a quality away from the object that bears it. The word entered philosophical English through medieval translations of Aristotle and has remained, ever since, the standard term for the mind's power to generalize beyond the particular case in front of it.
Usage examples
"To the soldiers in the trench, 'victory' had become an abstraction, while mud and cold remained painfully real."
"The professor insisted that love, before it is felt, is first an abstraction, learned from stories long before it is lived."
"He distrusted abstractions; he wanted to know the name of the river, not merely the word 'river.'"
How to use it
Abstraction is essential vocabulary for philosophy, criticism, and any prose interested in the gap between concept and experience. Writers often use it pointedly to criticize a character, institution, or argument that has drifted too far from concrete reality — the word itself can carry a faint accusation of coldness or detachment.
Related concepts
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