Abstrahieren



Example: Philosophen müssen oft von konkreten Beispielen abstrahieren.

Definition


"Abstrahieren" means to mentally separate or remove specific details from concrete examples in order to focus on general principles or concepts. Philosophers often use "abstrahieren" to analyze ideas by ignoring irrelevant particulars and emphasizing essential features.

Etymology


The word "abstrahieren" comes from the Latin verb 'abstrahere,' meaning 'to draw away' or 'to separate.' It entered German through scholarly use, especially in philosophy and science, where it describes the process of extracting general ideas from specific instances. Did you know? The root 'trahere' means 'to pull,' so "abstrahieren" literally suggests 'pulling away' details.

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"Abstrahieren" appears in the Vocaplus list "", containing 105 commonly used words.
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