In order to understand significant issues, consistent patterns, regularities and peculiarities of the concept theory, it is necessary to go back to first principles and ask what the concept of theory virtually implies. Judging by the rich pageant of descriptions, the general idea of theory holds quite a few meanings commonly used. The term is applied to a comprehensive set of meanings denoting
imaginative contemplation of reality or direct intellectual comprehension;
a belief, policy or procedure proposed or followed as the basis of action;
a principle or plan of action;
an ideal or hypothesized set of facts, principles and circumstances;
the body of generalizations and principles developed in association with practice in a field of activity and forming its content as an intellectual discipline;
the coherent set of hypothetical, conceptual and pragmatic principles forming the general frame of reference for a field of inquiry (as for deducing principles, formulating hypothesis for testing, undertaking actions);
abstract knowledge: theory necessary in designing something;
a field of intellectual inquiry;
a systematic analysis, elucidation, or definition of the concept
judgment, conception, proposition or formula relating to the nature, action, cause or origin of a phenomenon or a group of phenomenon formed by speculation or deduction, or by abstraction or generalization from facts;
a hypothetical entity or structure explaining an observed set of facts. (Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1993, p.2371)
The set of conceptual values produced includes quite a few dissimilar notions like contemplation vs. comprehension or hypothesizing vs. action considered in more detail below.