Introduction: Abstraction all the way down -- Language, abstract and less abstract -- CoGnitive linguistics: Language embodied -- Abstraction, metaphor and cultural context -- The abstraction of events in narrative and memory -- Pre-linguistic abstraction and projection: perception and imagination -- The feel of things: abstract emotion -- Neurological underpinnings: the world seen through hidden layers -- Abstraction at work: It's child's play -- The philosophical approach -- Abstraction all the way up: its evolutionary purpose