"The ladder of abstraction represents the way in which human thought may move from a low level of high specificity towards levels of increasing generality and abstraction, i.e. where more and more individual details are left out."
I love humanity. It's people I can't stand!
—C. Schultz: Peanuts
Using the conceptual framework of The Ladder of Abstraction, analysts can make sure their analysis is based on observable, measurable reality (the bottom of the ladder, non-abstract, concrete things and activities) as well as move up the ladder to the highest of abstractions, theory. I think that this ladder can be used to explain the realities of differences between those who work in the field and those who are high-level decision makers. Those who are on the streets, the observers, interpret the environment and their interpretations (or recordings) are put on paper, in computers, to be used by analysts, who work at a higher level of abstraction - not touching, hearing, seeing, smelling the events which they interpret for the highest levels. Tactical operations are less abstract than strategic operations. The ladder of abstraction can be a useful tool for you, as an analyst, to make sure your analysis is as complete as possible, to understand what level of abstraction your particular "customer" needs.
Excerpt from Language in Thought and Action, by S.I. Hayakawa (fifth ed., 1990, Harcourt Brace & Company, NY, NY).
"The differences between actual and symbolic experiences are great -- one is not scarred by watching a motion-picture battle, nor is one nourished by watching people in a play having dinner. Furthermore, actual experiences come to us in highly disorganized fashion: meals, arguments with the landlady, visits to the doctor about one's fallen arches, and so on, interrupt the splendid course of romance. The novelist, however, abstracts only the events relevant to the story and then organizes them into a meaningful sequence. This business of abstracting (selecting) events and organizing them so that they bear some meaningful relationship to each other and to the central theme of a novel or play constitutes the storyteller's art."
Analysts are also "storytellers."
Example:
"Level Four: Abstractions
Examples: life, beauty, love, time, success, power, happiness, faith, hope, charity, evil, good.
Level Three: Noun classes: broad group names with little specification.
Examples: People, men, women, young people, everybody, nobody, industry, we, goals, things, television.
Level Two: Noun categories: more definite groups.
Examples: teen-agers, middle-class, clothing industry, parents, college campus, newborn child, TV comedies, house plants.
Level One: Specific, identifiable nouns.
Examples: Levi 501 jeans, my blue, three bedroom house on Hollis Street, In Living Color, Bud commercials, African violets, Tina's newborn sister, Mina."
Read General Semantics: The ladder of abstractions
YouTube Video with Explanation of Ladder of Abstraction Explanation (Religious)
Read Excerpts from Language in Thought and Action (1949) by S. I. Hayakawa
Read An Essay on Levels of Abstractions
Read Communication Skills: Using the Five Whys to Create Specific, Descriptive Verbal Messages
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