What is abstraction? The method of abstraction and its purpose

Surely every one of us at least once in my lifeI 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 figure it out further.

General view

This concept goes back to Latin and is translatedliterally 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 the other side, 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, the natural, understandable and essential features of the object are identified. 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, any abstraction, is a 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.

You are 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 reduce them to 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

Every day, human consciousness is engagedsearch for new components, objects and concepts that were not explored earlier, which is indirectly helped by abstraction. The method of cognition in this case is a combination of ways with which new knowledge, methods of solution and research are opened, as well as systematization, 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 a method of abstraction, hasdistinctive features from the comparison technique. It is expressed in qualitative, quantitative forms of abstraction, when significant (undeniable) signs are singled out. To make a decision, a person is often based on a comparison method that allows you to evaluate possible (desired) indicators with real indicators. On the scales are put all the pros and cons that later influence the final choice.

The 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. It 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 the general properties from concrete, applicable to the given individual. This once again proves the undeniable argument that each person, as his mind and consciousness, is unique.

Application - in all

The method of scientific abstraction finds applicationin 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 subject itself. Thanks to this "view from the side" scientific concepts are born, which in turn form unified properties and connections that are combined into categories.

Thus, scientific abstraction can be traced ineconomy. In the world there are millions of different products of food consumption and non-food groups that people need every day. 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 the 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. Because of this, the method of scientific abstraction is a schematization of the structure. Supposed 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

Summarizing the topic, we nowwe definitely know that such 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.

Ability to apply abstraction in everydaylife 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").

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