noun: concept; plural noun: concepts
an abstract idea; a general notion.
I once watched a Xavier Dolan's movie, it's called "Les Amours Imaginaires". In English it's called "Heartbeats". It's a story about 3 young people stuck in a "imaginary" love triangle. Between the stories of these 3 young people, there are documentary shots about real-life relationship failures opinions. One of the women said, "It's the concept you love. You love the concept more than him".
Of course I understood right away what she meant.
Apparently, now that I'm preparing for my thesis. Everything in my daily-basis must be based on a scientific concept. Like, when writing a thesis (though I'm just writing an undergraduate thesis) you must stick to one scientific method. If you want to stick to it, you must understand the definition, its variables, the whole concept! And then you start to choose your paradigm in your research, you must understand the concept of the paradigm itself, and you must understand the concept of your own research topic. Concept nearly highlights everything. It's okay to understand the concept.
But must we really stick with it all the time?