Object level and Meta level

Object level vsvs. Meta level is a distinction between levels of abstraction, with theabstraction. The object level being directlyusually is about the specifics of thea specific issue at hand, while the meta level is concerned withabout general principles, 'arguments about arguments', or 'thinking about thinking'.

Example 1: "You should care about climate change because of the general principles which applygreenhouse effect" is an object-level argument, while "you should care about climate change because the majority of scientists agree it is a problem" is a meta-level argument.

Example 2: Planning a project is an object-level thing to do, while doing a wider range of examples. project management course is a more meta-level thing to do.

It is often useful to move up and down the ladder of abstraction to get points across clearly, withclearly. Concrete object-level examples are easy to grasp and can provide grounding, while describing a concept on the object meta-level providing firm grounding and concrete examplesis helpful for a person to grasp, while the meta layer allows them to generalize a new conceptapplying it to a broad domain.
 

FWIW, I feel that this entry doesn't capture all/most of how I see "meta-level" used. 

Here's my attempted description, which I wrote for another purpose. Feel free to draw on it here and/or to suggest ways it could be improved.

  • Meta-level and object-level = typically, “object-level” means something like “Concerning the actual topic at hand” while “Meta-level” means something like “Concerning how the topic is being tackled/researched/discussed, or concerning more general principles/categories related to this actual topic”
    • E.g., “Meta-level: I really appreciate this style of comment; I think you having a policy of making this sort of comment is quite useful in expectation. Object-level: I disagree with your argument because [reasons]”

One of those tags I'm surprised we didn't already have. Good job on noticing and writing it!

niplav10

I'm in favour of keeping the and – it keeps the implication that a conversation can switch between meta and object level.

Applied to Discuss: Meta-Thinking Skills by plex ago
Applied to Politics is way too meta by plex ago
Applied to Levels of Action by plex ago
plex10

Should this be "and" or "vs" in the tag title?

1niplav
I'm in favour of keeping the and – it keeps the implication that a conversation can switch between meta and object level.

Object level vs Meta level is a distinction between levels of abstraction, with the object level being directly about the specifics of the issue at hand, while meta level is concerned with the general principles which apply to a wider range of examples. It is often useful to move up and down the ladder of abstraction to get points across clearly, with the object level providing firm grounding and concrete examples for a person to grasp, while the meta layer allows them to generalize a new concept to a broad domain.

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