Chapter 5 is the first chapter of the second part of the book and focuses on abstract concepts – more generally, on abstractness. I first define abstract concepts and illustrate their main characteristics, comparing them with concrete ones. I contend that there is no major opposition between concrete and abstract concepts and that many concepts have both abstract and concrete components. In addition, different varieties of abstract concepts exist. Thus, the different kinds of concrete and abstract concepts can be conceived of as points in a multidimensional space, defined by various features and dimensions. I then focus on the different subkinds of abstract concepts, including emotions and mental states, numerical and spatiotemporal concepts, self and social concepts, and spiritual and philosophical concepts. Finally, I outline the central tenets of the Words As social Tools (WAT) theory on abstractness. According to the WAT view, abstract concepts evoke perception and action but especially activate inner bodily experiences, including interoceptive, emotional, and metacognitive ones. Crucially, the WAT view ascribes a unique role to language and social interaction for abstract concept acquisition and use. Finally, it underscores the flexible and context-dependent character of abstract concepts.

This book is a book on neither language nor abstract concepts. I treat language in its relationship with abstractness and abstract concepts in relation to language. One of the main reasons it has been written is to highlight the prominence of language for cognition and, more generally, our life. Although no theory has totally neglected the role of language, embodied and grounded theories of cognition have typically underlined the role of sensorimotor experience, semantic distributional views have considered language mainly in terms of word associations, and pragmatic views have not emphasized the transformative role that language has on cognition. Here I propose a holistic view of language, in which words are considered physical tools that influence our physical environment, inner and cognitive tools that impact our cognition, and social tools that transform our social environment. While the book’s first part focuses on language, the second part deals with abstract concepts and the words that express them. These words are intriguing because, among all words, their meaning is more subjective, variable, and open. They exemplify well the freedom language grant to us. In addition, more than other words, they demonstrate that conceptualization and language are social constructions.