p Another method of studying an object in its movement and development, of its inner relations is ascendance from the abstract to the concrete.

p Abstraction is a result of the mentally isolating certain aspects or properties of an object so as to attend to others, more important and essential at the given stage of investigation. This gives rise to abstract concepts which, as we know, are an important form of logical cognition.

p The concrete, as distinct from the abstract, is the result of the fusion of concepts, which are obtained in the process of abstraction, into a single whole. The concrete is the reflection of the unity of the components, of the connections and relations of the object being cognised.

p Since the abstract and the concrete are logical categories they rest on objective reality, on the unity, wholeness of objects and phenomena and on the existence of their components, sides and properties. Taking this into account, Marx viewed the cognition of an object as movement of thought from the abstract to the concrete, from simple, elementary concepts reproducing certain components or sides of an object, to more complex concepts and scientific theories and systems reproducing the object fully in its entire complexity.

p Marx’s Capital is a brilliant example of how scientific knowledge is acquired by means of ascending from the abstract to the concrete. Proceeding from the concept of commodity, the starting point of abstraction characterising the essence of capitalist production, Marx went on to more and more abstractions (money, capital, surplus value, wages, etc.) and gradually recreated a complete picture of capitalist economy. As a result capitalist production appears as the concrete, as a “synthesis of many concepts”, as “unity of multiformity”.  [176•* 

Nevertheless, all this does not repudiate an important premise of dialectical materialism that cognition begins with the sensory perception of an object. Prior to formulating abstract concepts and then synthesising them into a concrete whole, Marx scrupulously studied innumerable facts, aspects and features of capitalist reality which could be directly perceived. On the basis of these facts Marx formulated abstract concepts and then ascended from the abstract to the concrete.