THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CAT

Here are their definitions:

Concrete: "actual, real...like cat"

Abstract: "thought apart from concrete realities, specific objects or actual instances...difficult to understand, abstruse...an impractical idea, something visionary and unrealistic...like truth."

Which would you care to focus your attention on...the cat or the truth? If you said "the cat", then you are in league, I suspect, with 99% of the population, who are not attracted to the allegedly impractical and unrealistic.

Nor perhaps, should they be. Except for the fact that abstractions are neither impractical nor unrealistic. Abstractions...basically, ideas...can be very practical. In fact, every piece of human induced progress through the ages, every invention, was at first an abstraction, an idea in someone's mind. Thank heavens there were and are some among us who enjoy the contemplation, the tinkering with, the exploration of, abstractions, or humankind would stagnate.

And as for an abstraction not being realistic, tell me the anger you feel when you are unfairly treated, the sorrow you feel at the loss of a loved one, are not real. Things that are not real can have no impact on your life.

So what explains this general disinterest in this critical sphere of human life?

Perhaps it is the remnants of our ancestry...life forms that had only sensory and not conceptual skills. Humans mutated into conceptual beings capable of dealing with abstractions. All other life forms, including that cat above, can focus only on concretes.

Perhaps it is the effect of the breakthroughs of the Industrial Revolution. Before that time and dating back to ancient times, there were concretes...a man owned a donkey, he ate food, he had clothing...but the variety of those concretes was limited. One donkey was pretty much like any other donkey, there was no 5-page menu of dinner entrees to choose from, there was no Bloomingdales, no Old Navy, no Adidas. .

The Industrial Revolution's capacity to massively and quickly produce new goods, in seemingly endless varieties, quantities and types, changed all that. Man now had choices galore, and his eyes were tempted by them. This year's model soon became "old", that brand was more durable, more functional, cheaper. Improvements came rapidly, and with them came a deep-rooted psychological need for more and more and bigger and better concretes. Man's conceptual attention was overrun.

Perhaps the developing disinterest in the sphere of abstractions was fostered by the one group that should have known better: the "thinkers", the academia. Playing rationalistic mind games, many went to the edge and fell over...loudly proclaiming that there was in fact no such sphere, that what is true for me may not be true for you, that you can't know anything for certain, that majesty and beauty and serenity are fantastic constructs with no practical or realistic value.

Any wonder that not many amongst us can easily and precisely define abstract concepts like benevolence, sovereignty, justice, soul, nor care much to think or talk about them? Any wonder why after 2,000 plus years, we still are not certain as to how to attain happiness, perhaps the most pleasurable of abstractions? Any wonder why so many are more intrigued by what's on sale at Walmart's than they are in philosophy? Any wonder why we all know about Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell and Bill Gates, but few know, or care to know, who Hegel, Descartes, Rousseau and Adam Smith, were?

The proper answer,in my view, of what to focus on, the cat or truth, is both, of course...because both are real, both exist, and both contribute to the glory (oops) of our lives.