This article shows that cartographic generalization is best viewed as representing (formulating, renaming knowledge) and abstracting (simplifying a given representation). The general process of creating map is described so as to show how it fits into an abstraction framework developed in artificial intelligence to emphasize the difference between abstraction and representation. The utility of the framework lies in its efficiency to automate knowledge acquisition for the cartographic generalization as a combined acquisition of knowledge for abstraction and knowledge for changing a representation.