Abolitionism

A social movement to get a law repealed.

Absolutism

Absolute monarchy, a despotic form of state rule based on tyranny under which all political power (legislative, judicial and executive) resides entirely in one person—the monarch.

Abstraction

The mental process of isolation of some properties and links of an object from the others in disregard of the latter. The notion obtained as a result of this process is also called an abstraction.

Aesthetics

A science about the beautiful in reality, the peculiarities of human being’s aesthetic understanding of the world and the general principles of creativity according to the laws of beauty, including the laws of development of art as a special form of the aesthetic reflection of reality.

Aggregate Social Product (gross product)

All the products made by a society over a given period of time (usually a year). In its natural and material form, it is made up of means of production and articles of consumption; in its value form it is made up of the value of the material used in social production which must be compensated (wear and tear of machines and equipment, production buildings and structures, raw and other materials, etc.) and of the newly created value which goes for consumption by the population and extended reproduction.