Pandaemonium Architecture 6.0

In this course

Luciano Floridi is a philosopher known for developing the "method of levels of abstraction," an epistemological framework that moves beyond individual or psychologistic approaches to knowledge by grounding understanding in inter-subjective, socially constructed systems. In these readings, his work is invoked to legitimize a more flexible, non-rigid approach to analyzing complex systems—particularly in how one might model phenomenological and conceptual structures without collapsing into infinite regress or reductive mentalism. This framework appears to serve the course's broader interest in how abstraction itself becomes a tool for thinking about distributed cognition, observation, and systemic analysis in computational contexts.

Mentioned in 2 readings

Luciano Floridi

The Method of Levels of Abstraction

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Before starting, one last bit of information and an acknowledgement of my intellectual debts are in order. The bit of information concerns a second paper, on the same topic, which contains several specific applications of the method of abst…that is less infra-subjective, mental (if not psychologistic), innatist, individualistic and rigid. In Floridi and Sanders (2004a) and Floridi and Sanders (2004b), the method of levels of abstraction has been proposed as a more inter-subjec…More interesting is the question of infinite regress. Tarski’s definition formalises certain specific properties of truth; a regress would obtain only were a complete characterisation sought. So it is with the interpretation required to def…

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Pandaemonium Architecture 6.0 syllabus Fall 2025

1

What’s the Deal with Birds? v. Birds Aren’t Real– predatory journals, internet hoaxing “Birds are very strange. Some people are like “whoa they’re flying around and stuff, what’s the deal with that?” This sentiment is shared by people acros…

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