What is an abstract idea? Webster defines ‘abstract’ as expressing a quality apart from an object—disassociated from any specific instance. It would seem then that if we could remove all of the contingencies from an object (in this case the idea is the entity or object) we would have the essence of the idea and thus such would be an abstract idea.
I love peaches, I love mom, I love April in Paris, I love Fido, etc. It would seem that if I removed the contingencies from these instances of the idea of love I would have love in its abstraction. When I remove these contingencies I find that what is left is the abstract idea ‘love’. I find that love is a feeling an emotion.
I guess ‘terrorism’ is an abstract idea. Generally people hold ‘terrorist’ and ‘freedom fighter’ as contrasting opposites that are useful for association in the effort to understand the abstract ideas associated with them. We can find many instances of terrorists fighting freedom fighters throughout history. If we tried to find the essence of these two abstract ideas I guess we would find that the essence of each is a person who kills other persons.
When I try to find the essential difference between the two I cannot find anything different in kind between the two. It seems to me that they differ only in degree. A flower is different in kind from a tadpole but only different in degree from a leaf. An embryo is different in degree from an adult and different in kind from a tree.
I think it is important to recognize this difference in kind and in degree. If one does not keep these differences in mind one is easily manipulated by others.