The Primacy of the Abstract is a talk given by the economist F. A. Hayek in 1969. It discusses the relationship between concrete and abstract mental phenomenon. In this post we summarize the main points made in his talk. Here are a few main points:

Mental abstractions are the cause of concrete perceptions. In other words, abstractions can exist without concrete percepts, but concrete percepts can't exist without abstractions.
Particular behavioral outputs are the result of many mental abstractions jointly constraining the organism to perform that behavior
New mental abstractions cannot be designed in a top-down fashion, and are instead chosen from pre-existing abstractions that are found to be useful
The unconscious is more abstracted than the conscious - it is super-conscious.

Introduction

The phrase primacy of the abstract sounds like a paradox. In a more standard view of the abstract (perhaps one emphasized in mathematics), the abstract arises by finding patterns and generalizing concrete examples. From this perspective the concrete is the primary phenomena from which the abstract is derived.

Hayek takes the contrasting viewpoint: what if those mental constructs (sensations, perceptions, images, etc.) that feel primary, are actually the result of multiple abstract classes "superimposing" together to select a single concrete mental object? Hayek explores the consequences of this framework, ultimately making a compelling case.

In Hayek's view the abstract is causally primary. The abstract comes before and ultimately creates the low-level percept. He says,

in the mind the abstract can exist without the concrete, but not the concrete without the abstract.

This is certainly not how I tend to think about how my mind works. I imagine that I experience a vast array of particular sensory experiences, and the abstractions that I have developed allow me to classify and operate on them as abstract entities: couch, classical music, addition, etc. From Hayek's perspective my abstractions are exactly what give my sensory experience any richness, any specification, any particulation. Without my abstractions, everything would appear to me as distinct as television static. The primacy of the abstract also applies to motor output --- particular motor outputs are caused by abstract mental entities.

This perspective isn't as novel or unintuitive as it may seem. ...

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