ABSTRACT
Abstraction entails the identification of what is essential to, and enduring in, an entity – ignoring the accidental and superficial. The problem is to decide what is enduring and what is superficial. How are the criteria involved in this demarcation derived? This problem can be approached by means of different time-scales, each involving a different level of abstraction. Already, at a very general level we have considered features and principles that are common to all evolving complex systems. The next level concerned the universals of human existence. A third level may address specific types of socio-economic system.
