Editing Abstraction (section)

===In social theory===
[[Social theory|Social theorists]] deal with abstraction both as an ideational and as a material process. [[Alfred Sohn-Rethel]] (1899–1990) asked: "Can there be abstraction other than by thought?"<ref name="ReferenceA"/> He used the example of commodity abstraction to show that abstraction occurs in practice as people create systems of abstract exchange that extend beyond the immediate physicality of the object and yet have real and immediate consequences. This work was extended through the 'Constitutive Abstraction' approach of writers associated with the Journal [[Arena (Australian publishing co-operative)|''Arena'']]. Two books that have taken this theme of the abstraction of social relations as an organizing process in human history are ''Nation Formation: Towards a Theory of Abstract Community'' (1996)<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = James
 | first1 = Paul
 | author-link1 = Paul James (academic)
 | title = Nation Formation: Towards a Theory of Abstract Community
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LYe0sznllHgC
 | series = Volume 1 of Towards a theory of abstract community
 | date = 14 October 1996
 | location = London
 | publisher = SAGE
 | publication-date = 1996
 | isbn = 9780761950738
 | access-date = 30 June 2021
}}
</ref>
and an associated volume published in 2006, ''Globalism, Nationalism, Tribalism: Bringing Theory Back In''.<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = James
 | first1 = Paul
 | author-link1 = Paul James (academic)
 | title = Globalism, Nationalism, Tribalism: Bringing Theory Back in
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=SZUv65PpFNMC
 | series = Volume 1 of Towards a Theory of Abstract Community
 | date = 20 April 2006
 | location = London
 | publisher = SAGE
 | publication-date = 2006
 | isbn = 9781446230541
 | access-date = 30 June 2021
}}
</ref>
These books argue that a [[nation]] is an abstract community bringing together strangers who will never meet as such; thus constituting materially real and substantial, but abstracted and mediated relations. The books suggest that contemporary processes of [[globalization]] and [[Mediatization (media)|mediatization]] have contributed to materially abstracting relations between people, with major consequences for how humans live their [[human life (disambiguation)|lives]].

One can readily argue that abstraction is an elementary methodological tool in several disciplines of social science. These disciplines have definite and different concepts of "man" that highlight those aspects of man and his behaviour by idealization that are relevant for the given [[human science]]. For example, {{lang|la|homo sociologicus|italic=no}} is the man as sociology abstracts and idealizes it, depicting man as a social being. Moreover, we could talk about {{lang|la|homo cyber sapiens|italic=no}}<ref>{{cite book |last= Steels |first=Luc |title= The Homo Cyber Sapiens, the Robot Homonidus Intelligens, and the 'Artificial Life' Approach to Artificial Intelligence |location= Brussels |publisher= Vrije Universiteit, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory |year= 1995 }}</ref> (the man who can extend his biologically determined intelligence thanks to new technologies), or {{lang|la|homo creativus|italic=no}}<ref>{{cite journal | last = Inkinen | first = Sam | year = 2009 | title = Homo Creativus – Creativity and Serendipity Management in Third Generation Science and Technology Parks | journal = Science and Public Policy | volume = 36| issue = 7 | pages = 537–548| doi = 10.3152/030234209X465570| bibcode = 2009SciPP..36..537K }}</ref> (who is simply creative).

Abstraction (combined with Weberian [[Idealization (science philosophy)|idealization]]) plays a crucial role in [[economics]] - hence abstractions such as [[market (economics)|"the market"]]<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Jones
 | first1 = Campbell
 | title = Can The Market Speak?
 | date = 26 April 2013
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=aRVZAQAAQBAJ
 | location = Winchester
 | publisher = John Hunt Publishing
 | publication-date = 2013
 | page = 
 | isbn = 9781782790853
 | access-date = 30 June 2021
 | quote = Scrutiny of the idea of the market will reveal that behind the category 'the market' lies abstraction upon abstraction.
}}
</ref>
and the generalized concept of "[[business]]".<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Qalo
 | first1 = Ropate R.
 | title = Small Business: A Study of a Fijian Family : the Mucunabitu Iron Works Contractor Cooperative Society Limited
 | year = 1997
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EibtAAAAMAAJ
 | location = 
 | publisher = Mucunabita Education Trust
 | publication-date = 1997
 | pages = 18, 21
 | isbn = 9789823650012
 | access-date = 30 June 2021
 | quote = [...] the concept of abstraction to which business and money belong. [...] the business is allowed to function as an abstraction [...].
}}
</ref>
Breaking away from directly experienced reality was a common trend in 19th-century sciences (especially [[physics]]), and this was the effort which fundamentally determined the way economics tried (and still tries) to approach the economic aspects of social life. It is abstraction we meet in the case of both Newton's physics and the neoclassical theory, since the goal was to grasp the unchangeable and timeless essence of phenomena. For example, [[Isaac Newton|Newton]] created the concept of the material point by following the abstraction method so that he abstracted from the dimension and shape of any perceptible object, preserving only inertial and translational motion. Material point is the ultimate and common feature of all bodies. [[Neoclassical economists]] created the indefinitely abstract notion of [[homo economicus]] by following the same procedure. Economists abstract from all individual and personal qualities in order to get to those characteristics that embody the essence of economic activity. Eventually, it is the substance of the economic man that they try to grasp. Any characteristic beyond it only disturbs the functioning of this essential core.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last= Galbács |first=Peter |chapter=Methodological Principles and an Epistemological Introduction
 |pages=1–52|title= The Theory of New Classical Macroeconomics. A Positive Critique
 |location= Heidelberg/New York/Dordrecht/London |publisher= Springer |year=2015
 |isbn= 978-3-319-17578-2|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-17578-2 |series=Contributions to Economics
}}
</ref>