Abstraction

What is Abstraction?

Abstraction is a form of Pattern Recognition. Rather than an exact match between two things, an Abstraction is a pattern in which only some of the details of each thing match—the dissimilarities are ignored. 

A good (or useful) Abstraction preserves shared qualities or details that are meaningful. A poor (or unhelpful) Abstraction creates links between unimportant shared details.

Abstraction and Reification are inverse counterparts.