Definition of "abstractionist"

She punishes abstractionists, and will only forgive an induction which is rare and casual.

1844, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nominalist and Realist”, in Essays, Second Series

If you come near them and see what conceits they entertain,—they are abstractionists, and spend their days and nights in dreaming some dream; in expecting the homage of society to some precious scheme, built on a truth, but destitute of proportion in its presentment, of justness in its application, and of all energy of will in the schemer to embody and vitalize it.

1850, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Montaigne; or, the Skeptic”, in Representative Men

In this all-important respect I do not hesitate to say we theorists and abstractionists of the North, throughout that long anti-slavery discussion which ended with the 1861 dash of arms, were thoroughly wrong.

1913, Charles Francis Adams, ’Tis Sixty Years Since, New York: The Macmillan Company, page 15