Sentence:  It takes a great deal of <WSD>abstraction</WSD> to free oneself from the primitive impression of larger unities of power and influence and to view one 's world simply as a collection of sense data arranged in such and such sequence and pattern , devoid of all power to move the feelings and actions except in so far as they present themselves for inspection . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  the process of formulating general concepts by abstracting common properties of instances