Paradox Lost: A Cross-Contextual Definition of Levels of Abstraction

Paradox Lost: A Cross-Contextual Definition of Levels of Abstraction by Linda G. Elson Edited by Alan Ponikvar With a remembrance by Thom Gencarelli, an Introduction by Lance Strate, and an Afterwards by Corey Anton In this work Linda Elson is guided by an interest in bringing clarity by way of a definition to a central theme of communication theory -- levels of abstraction. She notes that a "levels-perspective" has been often employed in various fields of study but has not itself been a topic of investigation. By rectifying this problem, Elson hopes that there will be an appreciation of the explanatory scope of such a perspective. To this end, this work's concluding chapter surveys and offers creative applications and suggestive implications of a levels approach to a wide variety of fields. Elson's work is grounded in Alfred Korzybski's program of "consciousness of abstracting" as well as Gregory Bateson's appropriations of Bertrand Russell's theory of logical types. But she argues t