What is abstract?

"Abstract means thinking about something without seeing it right in front of you."

Imagine you're playing with building blocks. You don’t see the whole tower yet, you just feel the shape of one block in your hand. That’s like being abstract. You’re using what you know to imagine what could be.

Like a Puzzle Without All the Pieces

When you're abstract, it's like solving a puzzle, but not all the pieces are there. You might see part of a picture and guess what the whole thing looks like. That’s how your brain works when you’re trying to figure out something new, it uses parts to think about the full idea.

Thinking with Feelings

Sometimes, being abstract means thinking with feelings instead of just seeing things. Like when you say, "This block feels happy," even though it's just a plain old block. You're using your imagination and your senses to understand something in a new way.

Being abstract is like having a superpower, you can imagine the whole tower from one little block!

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Examples

  1. A child sees a dog and says 'dog', that’s concrete. But when they say 'animal,' that's abstract.
  2. Imagine you're playing with blocks, each one is a block, but together they form a house, that’s abstraction.
  3. You know what a car looks like, but the idea of transportation is more abstract.

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Categories: Math · abstraction· concept· thinking