Abstract may refer to:
- Abstract (law), a summary of a legal document
- Abstract (summary), in scientific publishing
- Abstract art, artistic works that don't attempt to represent reality or concrete subjects
- Abstract object in philosophy
- Abstract structure in mathematics
- Abstract type in computer science
- The property of an abstraction
- Q-Tip (rapper), also known as "The Abstract"
Famous quotes containing the word abstract:
“When we run over libraries persuaded of these principles, what havoc must we make? If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames; for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“... my whole existence is governed by abstract ideas.... the ideal must be preserved regardless of fact.”
—Mary Corinna Putnam (1842–1906)
“What persuades men and women to mistake each other from time to time for gods or vermin is ideology. One can understand well enough how human beings may struggle and murder for good material reasons—reasons connected, for instance, with their physical survival. It is much harder to grasp how they may come to do so in the name of something as apparently abstract as ideas. Yet ideas are what men and women live by, and will occasionally die for.”
—Terry Eagleton (b. 1943)