What is abstraction? The method of abstraction and its purpose

For sure, each of us at least once in my life came across such a concept as abstraction. It is often applicable in everyday life, when you should look at the surrounding things a little differently. How exactly - "differently"? What is meant by this and what is abstraction, let's try to understand further.

General view

This concept is rooted in Latin and translated literally as a "distraction." More often we mean not a change in the type of occupation or activity, but a change of thinking, an opportunity to look at things from another angle, from a different angle, even when the analyzed object seems unusual. In this way our mind connects all available ideas about this object and treats it as if it did not have separate properties, connections, phenomena. In the final analysis, there is a selection of natural, understandable and essential features of the object. What is abstraction? This is the separation or separation of one from the other. Optional is the subsequent recognition. Abstraction can be used temporarily, at a certain point, returning ideas about an object to the original level or, conversely, opening its new properties. In a narrower sense, the result of abstraction, that is, of any abstraction, is the generalization of the obtained (examined) theoretical features.

A different view of one object

Every person comprehends something in his life. His mind analyzes many factors, looking for individual elements that can have an impact, for example, to make a decision or to form an opinion on a particular object. In this comprehension an important role is played by the method of abstraction. His goal is to study subjects, as a rule, possessing much greater properties, relationships, connections, which, due to perception and thinking, a person can not fully realize. As a universal method of cognition, abstraction helps to highlight features. Comprehending the object, a person has the right to simplify it, pay attention to the obvious sides, while forgetting, that is, ignoring, the rest.

Are you familiar with such concepts as analysis, synthesis, abstraction? They are widely used in such areas as logic and philosophy, can exist separately from each other, but are more interrelated. By synthesis is meant the process of combining isolated, disjointed concepts; Its purpose is to bring them together into a single whole or group. Synthesis is an important stage in the activity of human consciousness, in which a cognitive function is formed. In other words, having several parts, synthesis and serves to collect them.

On the contrary, the analysis seeks to disassemble the existing whole into its constituent parts. Together, both concepts give rise to ideas about the connections that occur between the individual elements of the object of investigation.

Studying the reality

From day to day, human consciousness searches for new components, objects and concepts that have not been studied before, which is indirectly helped by abstraction. The method of cognition in this case is a combination of methods by which new knowledge, methods of solution and research are opened, as well as systematization and correction of data. This should include conclusions, principles of reasoning, forecast. So, when observing an object, a person puts forward hypotheses and theories that serve as a form of assumption. Later they can be backed up with scientific evidence, experiments, or by collecting additional facts.

Cognition, as an abstraction method, has distinctive features from the comparison technique. It is expressed in qualitative, quantitative forms of abstraction, when significant (indisputable) signs are singled out. To make a decision, a person is often based on a comparison method that allows you to evaluate the possible (desired) indicators with real indicators. On the scales are put all the pros and cons that later influence the final choice.

Screws of our internal mechanism

So, what is abstraction? Undoubtedly, this is a complex mechanism, to which we resort, sometimes even without realizing it. Mentally, a person separates the existing from the non-existent, isolating the individual elements from the set. This can be a chain of events, a series of processes, a group of objects. So, referring to the individual characteristics of a person, psychology is able to abstract general properties from concrete ones applicable to the given individual. This once again proves the undeniable argument that every person, as his mind and consciousness, is unique.

Application - in all

The method of scientific abstraction finds application in many areas: politics, mathematics, logic. We have already learned that, under the general concept of abstraction, there is a diversion from external phenomena in order to distinguish nonessential details or the essence of the object itself. Thanks to this "view from the side," scientific concepts are born, which in turn form unified properties and connections that are united in categories.

So, scientific abstraction can be traced in the economy. In the world there are millions of different products of food consumption and non-food groups, daily needed by man. All of them differ in a variety of features and properties. But, departing from their endless comparisons, a person involuntarily combined them into a single category - the goods as products intended for sale.

Scientific abstraction is noticeable in construction. Each structure includes a detailed calculation, taking into account the features of the future building. But exact geometric correspondences, like the strict interaction of all its individual components, are not always 100% feasible - this is either impossible theoretically or unacceptable in practice due to excessive complexity. Due to this, using the method of scientific abstraction, the structure is schematized. The assumed secondary factors are excluded, which, in turn, does not affect the accuracy and reliability of the calculations performed.

To think abstractly is the ability of every person

Summing up the topic, we now definitely know what abstraction is - a mental, conscious distraction from the properties of an object, thanks to which a new idea about it appears or a logical concept is formed.

The ability to apply abstraction in everyday life is inherent in a person since birth. Linguistic skills and the development of the language itself play a large role here. So, when thoughts "flow" in an abstracted order, the consciousness does not focus on the individual features of the object, characterizing it according to general indicators (for example, "fruit"). In contrast to the abstract, science cites the arguments of the concrete - in this case the consciousness expands the boundaries of understanding, looking for additional properties (not just a "fruit", namely "orange" or "sweet-sour apple").