Abstraction
From Wikiquote
Abstraction is the process or result of generalization by reducing the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon.
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- I discovered the works of Euler and my perception of the nature of mathematics underwent a dramatic transformation. I was de-Bourbakized, stopped believing in sets, and was expelled from the Cantorian paradise. I still believe in abstraction, but now I know that one ends with abstraction, not starts with it. I learned that one has to adapt abstractions to reality and not the other way around. Mathematics stopped being a science of theories but reappeared to me as a science of numbers and shapes. ~ Alexander Stepanov
- An abstraction is one thing that represents several real things equally well. ~ Edsger W. Dijkstra
