The process by which certain features of a phenomenon or reality are chosen for consideration and others are downplayed; the product obtained by such a process is ens rationis, a state of mind; his being is available only in thought.
If we focus on human beings only as economic units, excluding all their other features, then we have produced an abstraction.
Charles Peirce, who distinguishes between two types of abstraction, hypostatic and prescissive, states that “abstraction has become a target for ridicule in modern times” (CP 4.234).
We often condemn and belittle a position or form of thinking, calling it abstract. But the process by which we form abstract concepts and abstractions, as a result, is in itself worthy of respect. Holistic thinking chooses some distinctive features of an object, ignoring all others.
Abstraction is nothing more than a condition without which one cannot (conditio sine qua non) for thinking itself.
This is true of both practical and purely theoretical thought. When a person jumps from a crashing car, this action expresses a high-level abstraction. In order to prolong life and preserve his limbs, man perceives the approaching object as a threat. Man chooses – in this example instantly – the only possibility from the complex whole and to this end accepts with his mind that the chosen possibility is practically equivalent to all, ignoring the others.
The whole of the reality “car” is reduced to a single sign.
Such a concept is not only highly abstract, it is above all practical. Precisely because it is abstract, because it chooses this feature most directly and urgently, it leads to the achievement of some goal or desire (in this case, to avoid injury or something worse). Thus, in the name of the practice, not just theory, abstraction must be valued, not denied.
