A concept is an abstraction. Abstractions are a way to characterize the behavior of complex systems. It's not feasible to directly compute their behavior, but

A concept is an abstraction. Abstractions are a way to characterize the behavior of complex systems. It's not feasible to directly compute their behavior, but they still have predictable properties. Concepts let you handle emergence; you can manipulate an object as its own thing rather than a collection of atoms. (And yes, I did just read Stephen Wolfram's book and this idea is largely based on it. I think he has some delusions of grandeur but is also onto something.)