Abstraction
The word abstraction (Latin abstractus - " deducted " from abs - trahere participle passive - " deduct, remove, disconnect" ) usually refers to the inductive thought process of omitting details and transferring to something more general or simpler. In addition, there are specific uses of abstraction in certain particular sciences and individual theories.
- 4.1 Abstraction in depth psychology
Philosophy
In the philosophy of abstraction called a theoretical method is apart by the given certain, but considered to be insignificant features of an object. In this way, attention should focus on the essentials, ie in a very specific conceptual meaning of the thus acquired special features. Already here the question arises whether such a process of abstraction in each case can be regarded as similar if there are both inter-individually - is used - between different people - and categorically - for different types of terms. These kinds of questions are the subject of the theory of abstraction. As a result of these theories, different methods of abstraction are adopted, such as the method of isolating abstraction. Here, from a given number of features that are essential for a very specific object properties proven about the manner of a parlor game in which the to-guess word must be crystallized by yes and no answers out of an ever narrower concept scale.
Abstraction often denotes an operation of thought, which shapes of concrete objects of reality ( about this tree here, that tree there, etc. ) the general properties " subtract " and from this example, general terms (such as: the genus tree). To do this except for certain individual characteristics of concrete objects so that the abstracted characteristics apply to several other objects as well. Such general terms speak some philosophers (called Universalienrealisten ) independent reality ( there is the concept tree even if there are no trees in the real world or are no words in any natural language, expressing the content of the tree - term). Such terms, say some theorists precisely because they are abstractions, a specific own status as he plays informational contents of all: namely, these levels are not localized in space and time and are only such consciousnesses accessible can accomplish what abstraction benefits of the appropriate type at all. The latter approaches the so-called idealist or constructivist positions in relation to abstract concepts. These are contrarian universals, which claim that general concepts and the like mere constructs and have no existence independent of thought or, more precisely abstraction operations. (Also, called those extreme positions which teach that there ever only one type of beings admit, that just mental, as something thought, usually also idealistic. ) Debates about such ontological and epistemological issues are done for centuries, and have in recent decades complexity increased again. For example, different realistic theories of natural kinds ( objects such as hydrogen, trees, etc. ) have been elaborated; there are so-called trope theories, which describe universals than, but fully in individuals existent. Denies former kind of theories that specific concepts gained through proper abstraction benefits are mere abstractions.
Also, to capture the intuitively plausible, but difficult to accurately explizierende distinction between abstract and concrete objects, complicated theories were developed, such as Crispin Wright and Bob Hale or by Edward N. Zalta. While theorists such as George Bealer try to point to an epistemological basis, the necessary existence of abstract objects a priori, and Hilary Putnam, wants about Hartry Field prove the opposite, especially for the philosophy of mathematics.
Selected positions of the History of Philosophy
Even the pre-Socratics were looking for a primary matter or more to explain reality by returning to abstract objects or principles. Heraclitus, for example, has sought in all beings according to the Common.
Plato puts every thing a perfect idea of the article is based: this tree is therefore a tree because it participates in the idea of the tree, which itself is not localized in space and time and not just by abstraction but by recollection recognized by the idea of the tree will. The costs associated with such an idea realism problems were partly already discussed by Plato himself.
Aristotle described the deemed immaterial characteristics of an object as commercial. In his teachings he presented at three levels of abstraction. These have exerted considerable influence on the metaphysics. Indeed, if the highest level of abstraction assigns as the highest public the so-called being, as that term is indeed very comprehensive, but yet so devoid of content that you sawing off the branch on which you sit or sit believes cf. → extension and intension, Arbor porphyriana. Aristotle discusses the Platonic doctrine of ideas much more critical. He worked with the term eidos. This is a kind of structural principle of objects of each particular type. However, this is localized itself in beings and metaphysical not separable from it (there's no redness, if there is no red objects). However, Aristotle also teaches a tetrad of causes. In particular, the shape - cause is relevant here. So objects and their texture can be explained by reduction to more fundamental, more abstract causes as well. Since this feedback should not go on forever, Aristotle is a self " unmoved mover " to. All "movement", which in particular means any change in the location and nature, has in it its first cause.
From the late ancient philosopher Boethius the juxtaposition comes from abstract and concrete.
The so-called universals about whether the abstract concepts of "before" or " after the things " were available or would be formed, the thinkers of the Middle Ages held in suspense.
John Duns Scotus, for example, went on his " abstractive " epistemology assumes that an object can only be experienced through the senses and the mind creates an image. By independent, vigorous activity of the mind this still disordered imagination is determined as the universal in the image. That is, the General contained in the image is abstracted from the particular and material conditions of the individual object. The result is the clear and distinct knowledge, which captures the object concept in all its facets. The realization is not complete until it is anchored in the memory. Only by the (passive ) internalization is an object intelligible and can light as possible in the realization, that is again called into consciousness. The once gained concept of an object can be replaced by another term, as well as performances by the combination can be re-created or changed.
Even some English philosophers of the early modern period, such as John Locke and George Berkeley (the latter drove the abstraction to not deceivable "something" ) and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Baruch Spinoza and René Descartes have dealt with the issue and argued, inter alia, about whether our conceptions of essences ( that which constitutes about water as such makes bzw.zu water) congenital or acquired are.
Also participated in David Hume, who represented an empiricist approach to this dispute; Cause and effect would be formed, for example, only from the experience of a sequence of something on something, but we never knew for sure if tomorrow the sun will rise again. Hume was again criticized by Immanuel Kant, who developed the concept of the counter ( presupposed ) " conditions of the possibility of any experience ": the pure forms of intuition, the categories of the understanding, the Regulative reason.
The philosophical movement of the so-called German idealism at the turn of the 18th to the 19th century (eg, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling ) as a specific antonym to abstraction the very requirement rich notion of concretion. These theories are very complicated. The idealists understood concretion not the process of thinking the ( commonly held ) Concrete or a ( popular ) General term applied to anything concrete, but the " dialectical reversal " of the distinction between abstract and concrete in a higher unity, which allow for their information only should, to accurately reflect reality.
Martin Heidegger, in Being and Time (1927 ) of the entire tradition of thought, and especially the idealists accused to have skipped " ordinariness ", formed another pair of opposites, the abstract and concrete would hold one " everyday ": " handiness " and " present-at- ".
In the " Philosophical Dictionary " ( Apel / Ludz, 1958) is abstraction seen as a contrast to the determination, that is very different than, for example, in the idealist, and enumerated a number of different abstraction methods: insulating or generalized ( generalized ), quantitative or qualitative, negative or positive abstraction.
The different conceptions of epistemology result in different approaches to definition of abstraction. The representatives of modern science theory and analytical philosophy were involved in this dispute.
Also the term specification is compared to the abstraction.
Unanimity of views has not been reached. Only about there since ancient unity, even among philosophers that mathematics and logic are purely abstract science. Today, the system theory of computer science is considered to be purely abstract science.
Other sciences can be viewed among other things, abstract point of view. In the art is referred to as abstract works that depart from the objective point of view.
Art
In the visual arts abstraction called the one hand, the more or less pronounced stylistic reduction of the things shown on substantial or specific aspects. In this case one says that is abstracted from the general to the essentials. What is considered essential, on the one hand determines the creativity of the artist, on the other hand, the perception of the viewer.
The figures compare realistic and abstract drawings of a stag beetle. Through abstraction changes, for example in perspective, color, texture or style may arise. Particularly striking are often characteristic changes, that is, things that do not belong in Example F as the yellow area to the object or how the additional leg links in the Example D emphasize a feature.
B realistic drawing; but emphasized contours, features are obtained
C realistic drawing; but changes color, features are obtained
D abstract drawing; Not yet received the form and color, but stresses characteristic leg members, get perspective rudimentary yet
E abstract drawing; Shape, color and perspective are changed
F abstract drawing; Shape, color and features are changed, perspective is completely abandoned
On the other hand, the term of art in different currents of modernity, or contemporary art, whose characteristic is even the complete absence of a concrete object cover. ( Abstract Art, Abstract Painting in particular ) where the viewer has his or her individual capacity for abstraction increasingly expand to hear the changes made by the artist still can. Works thematize these flows, for example, the formal design principles themselves ( Geometric abstraction in the formative arts), the sign language of the artist ( Action Painting ) or the color changes ( Informal, Tachism, drip painting ). Also in the performing arts, the abstraction go so far that the original features (eg a conversation or action) from the viewer only understood when it detects the essentials in it. All currents of abstract art require perception and interpretation skills.
Mathematics
In mathematics and modern philosophy abstracts are usually identified with equivalence classes. Starting from a given set K of concrete nouns and one on her declared equivalence relation ~ ( a reflexive, transitive and symmetric binary relation ) is simply an abstraction as the set of concrete nouns construed that relate to each other in the relation ~. Common to all variants of the modern theory of abstraction, the basic idea, that of the equivalence relation existing between the concrete nouns ~ ( a "generic" or "qualitative similarity " ) to identity (" numerical equality" ) is to be transferred to the respective abstracts. This will be clearer with reference to a list of examples:
- Uniformly heavy body have equal weight;
- Equally powerful sets have the same cardinal number;
- Congruent figures suggest when divided by a fixed number of the same group;
- Parallel lines have the same direction;
- Synonymous predicates express the same concept.
Body, quantities, Straight and predicates are in this list, the concrete nouns K; Weights, cardinal numbers, directions and concepts are abstractions derived from them; " Equal weight ", " equally powerful ", " parallel", "synonym", press the equivalence relation ~ from. In the case of numbers, this has already been formulated by David Hume in his Treatise of Human Nature, therefore it also speaks of Hume's principle.
From this list, a general scheme can win :; read: For all concrete objects x and y are the abstraction a is identical to x with the abstraction a to y if and only if x is in ~ to y. Gottlob Frege has described in his Foundations of Arithmetic as a redistribution: The content of eg "parallel" moves partly into the general "=", partly in the abstractive a functor
However, this is not a good definition of the functor a Frege's original proposal, therefore, from the basics of arithmetic is, as the abstraction to a given equivalence relation simply to display the corresponding equivalence class. In the event the numbers he is the famous definition:
Generalized and transferred into modern notation, it can be stated: . In words: The abstract to x under a given equivalence relation ~ is the set of y, the ~ are in the equivalence relation x.
Psychology
In psychology, is called abstraction the process that information to such an extent relies on its essential characteristics that they can be processed by other methods mentally, than the original information. Examples include pictures, models, transformations and concepts. So each shape in everyday life completely perceived by chair in every situation differently ( view figure ), but linguistically to their man useful property for use (to seat object with only loosely outlined shape ). Only then can the request be " Give me a chair! " Understood because of the Requesting Party and the receiver have a common, abstract idea about what is needed for the particular purpose.
Abstraction ability is in psychology a prerequisite for the formation of concepts and rules, and thus the requirement of cognitive abilities such as thinking, learning, perception or memory. For simplicity, therefore terms are often collected in encyclopedias or dictionaries and defined. The larger amount of all terms but generated individually, they are only situationally relevant.
Concept formation by abstraction is described as essential individual and cultural ability. A person like Borges ' fictional character Funes, who experienced every second of his life as a novel and unique, would not be viable.
The level of abstraction of concepts (called visual area icon) can be of different heights. The human brain works optimally with concepts at an intermediate level of abstraction that is neither too general, so uninformative (Example: " Give me that thing " ), is still too specific, so burdened with unimportant details. Advantages of this moderately abstract conceptual representations ( Zeitz ) are:
Numerous studies have shown that people generally get along with three levels of abstraction for each term: the average basic level (eg, " chair " ), plus a more abstract generic term (eg, "furniture" ) and the more concrete level of individual examples (eg as " my kitchen chair "). The terms of the basic level are also called basic categories and are characterized by characteristic properties:
With increasing experience, the assignment of the three levels of abstraction changes, a furniture salesman will not remember every single chair, but raise the price ranges for distinction.
Abstraction ability is also an important prerequisite for effective and efficient learning. In the psychology of learning, there is therefore the concept of "progressive abstraction ", ie the ability to similar information to be able to summarize certain preambles more and more and thus to link his knowledge always meshed.
Abstraction ability as a psychic power can also be disturbed: enabling people with different forms of schizophrenia, severe neurosis or with a mental retardation have problems understanding or distinguish terms. They often have deficits in social interactions. In a mental retardation, for example, terms such as " manager " and "Staircase " are no longer abstract distinguished. People with abstraction deficits for example, describe these objects often with " because you can climb high," instead of recognizing differences (here portability or pitch angle ). Typical of a lack of capacity for abstraction is the inability of a concrete object, eg As the same function as any other to recognize the " stairs in my house in the Sample Street 3", " stairs ".
Abstraction in depth psychology
Carl Gustav Jung defines abstraction as a mental activity, the unique, incomparable or individual pulls content from a link, differentiated. If one is set by abstracting the target, is trying to get rid of the object itself as a unique whole and to deduct the interest from your subject easier to return to the subject. According to Jung, abstraction is a withdrawal of the libido ( = energy) from the object to the subjective abstract content, what an object is equivalent to devaluation. In other words, abstraction is an introverted libido movement. The opposite of abstraction is, according to Jung, the setting of the → concretism.
Linguistics
A linguistic abstraction is the formation of categories (taxonomy ), which do not describe the individual objects. It is in this case an abstract category formed integrates the properties of the individual objects, but this does not name exactly. The category " Home Furnishings " is an abstraction of the concrete terms " sofa ", " table ", " cabinet ", " lamp ", etc., which are included in the category " Home Furnishings ".
See also: superizing
The abstraction in grammatical categories such as adverbs, adjectives, nouns, predicate, copula, is an advanced cognitive abilities that is toddlers inaccessible. In everyday life, this abstraction process takes place involuntarily and unnoticed. The incarnation depended critically along with the development of the capacity for intellectual abstraction. In addition, however, what exactly is meant by abstraction, and were thinkers and scientists do not always agree.