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Concretizing Abstractions

Jean Moroney

Presented at: IRM 2000

Date: Jul 02, 2000

Floating abstractions sabotage many people's thinking. To keep concepts firmly connected to the world, concretization is critical. That means giving not just one example, but many, selected to capture the essentials of a given abstraction. In this workshop, we begin with a reliable technique for producing a number of examples, even when none comes easily to mind. We then learn how to vary the examples in content and difficulty, and finally to select and hone the best, using contrast and drama to make them compellingly clear. The approach combines logic and psycho-epistemology––i.e., asking oneself specific questions, and monitoring the resulting signal from the subconscious. There will be three short homework exercises.

epistemology

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