6 Answers

  1. Abstract thinking is thinking with abstract concepts.

    Specific objects are usually called objects of the physical world that we can feel with our senses – for example, see, hear, touch. Abstract concepts do not exist in the physical world, they are more general ideas, they cannot be touched or smelled, and therefore they can be difficult to understand, describe, or explain.

    For example, concrete objects are a dog, a cat, a teacher, a gardener, a chair, and abstract concepts are loyalty, independence, intelligence, love, and justice. Abstract objects can be not only words, but also symbols, signs, and images. Many scientific concepts are abstract, such as number, sum, subtraction, difference, area, force, pressure, etc.

    Chronologically, the child first learns visual-figurative thinking, that is, the ability to operate with specific material objects, and then abstract thinking, that is, the ability to build logical chains, see and analyze patterns, and perform actions with abstract concepts.

    The difference between visual-imaginative and abstract thinking can be noticed in children who are beginning to master mathematics. For example, a child at the stage of visual thinking can divide 10 candies into two equal piles, but cannot solve the example 10: 2 = written on paper. Another child can solve example 6: 3 = (by imagining how he divides six apples between himself and two friends), but cannot solve example 60 : 30 = (because it is difficult for him to imagine so many apples) – he is somewhere in the intermediate stage between visual and abstract thinking and in the case of smaller numbers can make the transition between abstract (numbers on paper) and concrete (apple), but with large numbers-not yet.

  2. The world around us is like an iceberg: there is a visible part (with the eyes) and an invisible part (with the mind).

    Ordinary language is enough to talk about the visible world. For speaking and thinking in the Invisible World, special words are used: concepts, judgments, inferences, mental models.

    Above, I used an “analogy”: I likened the World around me to an iceberg.

    Such an object “The Surrounding world” does not exist in reality, I introduced it in my text and explained it using the analogy with an iceberg. This was the simplest abstract thinking.

    If you want to master abstract thinking, then at least get acquainted with formal logic. By the way, my father gave me the textbook Logic for the 7th grade, published in 1953. But when I was studying – the subject of Logic was no longer either in school or in uni.

    The highest level of abstract thinking is dialectical logic, where one can think with the help of Contradictions: formulating them and resolving them with the help of techniques.

    Has it become more clear about abstract thinking? If not, please write to us and we'll look into it further…

    All reasonable things!

  3. These are images, diagrams that a person uses to describe the physical world. In reality, things are much more comprehensive. Using abstractions, a person can link a series of phenomena together and come up with a certain model of what is happening in order to further use the knowledge gained in practice.

  4. For example, a customer comes to the designer and figuratively tells him what he needs.
    It shows 3 different images and asks you to combine them.
    A designer with an abstract mindset will take into account all the customer's wishes and come up with an option himself.
    And if you wait for a clear technical task, and will ask what exactly you like on that, on this photo, and so on to specify, then-specific.

    Or the example of a photographer.
    A client comes, says, take a photo of me, and that's brave and beautiful. A photographer with an abstract mindset will evaluate the type of client, ask leading questions about the style of the photo, and do everything perfectly, on a whim.
    A photographer with a specific mindset will ask for a specific sample photo. And he will do everything clearly according to science. It may not be very beautiful, but it is almost the same as in the photo that the client showed as indicative.

  5. In simple words, it is better to use an example.

    You are in a new and incomprehensible situation – you need to understand it. Petka behaves unpredictably – almost freaks out, Vaska on the contrary is very direct, strict and fast, and Anka shows up a little, but everyone is afraid of her for some reason. And somehow, these three completely different people interact against you. What the hell is going on? Having received a couple of times on the back of the head, we turn on the brains: “Petka-knight, Vaska-rook, Anka-queen”. Yeah, now at least we understand the difference and the relationship between them. And also – how they are different, act as a team. And then: we apply our model to the situation and discover its hidden patterns, while refining the model. For example, it may turn out that “chess” adds inappropriate intelligence to the group's relations, and it is better to describe it as “a man, a thug and a boss” or “a milkmaid, a shepherd and a cow”, or it may turn out that the whole essence of the team boils down to a simple and eternal “c2 = a2 + b2”.

    -But the moment when you described Petka as a “horse” was an act of abstraction: you took away from Petka the living face, name, clothes, fate and the whole personality, and left the naked principle of character, the naked function of behavior.

  6. Abstract thinking is the ability, if not to create, then at least to understand rather complex models of phenomena.

    For example, there are enough biology teachers in the world who do not understand the evolutionary model even in its very first, simple form, as Darwin formulated it. It is obvious that we can not talk about insufficient familiarity with the subject, insufficient experience. The bill in their case goes for years – where a few hours are enough. And it's not that they're all complete idiots – in everything. And this is their area of specialization, the very area where they should be most competent. ,But… they just don't have abstract thinking.

    Even crows have the rudiments of abstract thinking, by the way. �And … not all people are superior to crows in this.

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