The act of appreciating a particular result or problem as a specific case of a broader family of results or problems. Once a mathematical theorem is proved, such as Fermat’s Little Theorem, mathematicians will look to extend the result—as Euler did with the totient function. It can also help to place a particular unsolved problem in a broader setting which makes the nature of the problem more apparent. Abstraction is a form of generalization, usually involving viewing the problem in a new and different light.