Re: The Meaning of Abstract

From: Herman Jurjus (h.jurjus_at_hetnet.nl)
Date: 06/02/04 

Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 09:53:17 +0200

"Jesse F. Hughes" <jesse@phiwumbda.org> wrote in message news:87y8n7c6iz.fsf@phiwumbda.org...
> Nathan Funk <noemail@noemail.com> writes:
>
> >> I guess I don't understand abstraction.
> >>
> >> Is "abstract" supposed to be a synonym for "lossy compression"? If
> >> so, do you regard an mp3 ripped from a CD as an abstraction of the
> >> original wave file?
> >
> > I would definitely understand an mp3 as an abstract representation of
> > the raw waveform data contained on a CD. Do you have a better example
> > for the point you are trying to make?
>
> Most of us don't regard the relation between mp3 and wave file as the
> same as the relation between the concept of triangle and *all* of the
> particular three-sided figures with which we are familiar[1].

Isn't that called "generalization", rather than abstraction?

BTW, the common sense meanings of 'group', 'set', 'class'
'number', 'sequence', 'field', 'contradiction' are also rather
different from their formal mathematical counterparts.
One wonders how sloppy, irrelevant, or plainly wrong
mathematics must look in the eyes of a non-mathie...

;-)
Cheers,
Herman Jurjus