TOP Quarterly Update #6: 22 Aug 2012

Dear Member,

How do you interest people in something whose existence they cannot imagine?  This is the conundrum-challenge facing the TOP website.

The very notion that experiential-social things and processes can be identified and organized is strange for most people, including those who are scientifically trained. Most people don't know the meaning of the word «taxonomy» and, even if they do, cannot credit this is possible in the personal-social domain.

But unless we become aware that we create our lives, families and societies, there will never be improvement. To do that we need to become aware of our own qualities and tendencies: all the features that generate a personal identity. But that alone is not enough. As in making material improvements to life, unless we have the tools and technologies—which one way or another are provided by THEE—then we cannot effectively take our fate in our own hands. We will simply continue to talk at cross purposes and unnecessarily choose less satisfactory or even counter-productive options.

In the past, people had to develop confidence in reason and science as being superior to tradition and superstition in physical matters. That took courage. So people need now to develop confidence in their awareness and personal responsibility for social life, and regard that as superior to ideology and mental conformity. That too will take courage.

In this Update, I will

  • review my focus in recent blogs
  • introduce the TOP Team
  • tell you about a mistake in my earliest framework: Inquiry
  • update you on framework posting development.

Blogs & More

My blogs have continued this past quarter. Several have been about the emerging enlightenment:

I found myself doing battle with the unhealthy intrusion of the materialist-mechanist scientific paradigm into personal and social life:

There were also a number of reflections flowing from my current postings about our «better self»:

The «& More» in the heading relates to our development of a dedicated YouTube channel. It has started off with some initial short videos, created as a trial over a year ago. A series of podcasts and videocasts is now being planned for the coming quarter. More info in the next Update.

The TOP Team

With this Update, I am pleased to say that TOP now has its core team in place. This has made life easier and far more enjoyable for me. Let me introduce them to you in order of their joining and so you can understand how things are developing.

Tim Williams, our webmaster, took over from Eldin Didic who originally created the website. Tim does many things that are invisible to members and visitors but are essential to a good browsing experience. Of course he regularly responds to requests for assistance, and people have sent me emails to let me know how unusually helpful Tim has been. This is a source of pride and comfort for me.

Helen Anderton is our copy-editor, writing consultant and style controller. This is a nearly impossible job due to my interference and writing limitations. So what is consistent and clear in what you read should be put down to her, and what is confused and over-stylized reflects my weaknesses. Once we have gone through the whole text (by end-2012), then there will be a major style review with the view to a general upgrading. Helen is currently working on the Glossary which should see light of day in early 2013.

Tom Kershaw is the writer, communicator, blogger, explainer of THEE. He has an excellent feel for what I call the emerging 21st Century Enlightenment and wants to be part of it. Tom does not pretend to be an expert or consultant in THEE. His goal is primarily to help people to become aware that it is possible to be clear about what goes on inside our heads, and that this world is not captured by conventional empirical science. He does this by tweeting (via @THEE_Online) and blogging personally about his own thoughts and feelings, as he considers one topic or another that catches his attention.

Pete Preston is our project manager and media expert: a role that has emerged with the establishment of thee-online.com as a permanent and evolving part of the web. Besides an untiring willingness and good nature, Pete has an orientation to what people need and want, a down-to-earth grasp of organizing and planning, and an attunement to how the Internet and searching is developing. He works as a sounding board for everyone else, keeping us on track and boosting morale generally.

Momchil Stalev is the latest recruit, a graphic designer, and he has already introduced a number of improvements. His brief is to ensure that aesthetics and imagery are given a high priority everywhere: not just on the website homepage, but also in the subsidiary areas like the new YouTube Channel and even this Update. Momchil is particularly eager to ensure that graphics can actively help people grasp THEE ideas quickly and intuitively. So a major review of framework images is now underway.

Alex Kinsey who works at Catalyst Partners in Sydney, has been helping me from the outset in the back-office. She is not engaged with the website as such, but does all those book-keeping and admin tasks essential to keep a complex show on the road. I greatly appreciate her unfailing reliability and responsiveness.

I am pleased that the TOP Team is international—spanning Australia, USA, Switzerland, Bulgaria, UK—and driven by Millennials. (Helen and I are young at heart.) The team works smoothly even though it has never met as a group face to face: that's the power of purpose!

Inquiry into Inquiry

The first framework that I published dealt with inquiry. There were two papers: Measurement and the Structure of Scientific Analysis, and A Total Framework for Inquiry.

At that time, I had no idea that I was dealing with a taxonomy. I also did not understand what sort of validation was required or even possible when I proposed a relationship between elements.

Tibor, an unusually clear thinker in Sydney, recently pointed out to me that what I was saying about concepts and observations did not make sense. I looked at his criticism more closely and—how right he was! Instead of concept-L1 and observation-L2, it should be the other way around.

How did I make that error?

It was easy actually. The similar ordering (correspondence) of the Primary Hierarchy and the Principal Typology fooled me. But I had not personally ordered either of these ... I copied the order from leaders in the field (who did not know each other).

One of these was the late C. West Churchman, the original doyen of Operations Research. I was a young academic. I sure wanted my paper published. What was the incentive to take on Churchman? Better to blindly believe. After all, that is the way that science works, more or less. As it turned out, Churchman reviewed my paper and passed it for publication in Systems Research.

I now realize why these two great scientists agreed, and why (from my taxonomic perspective) they are wrong . They were both mathematicians, and how does a mathematician get inquiry going?

Let there be a field, P, with a point X subject to vectors W, Y, and Z. Then...

There you are: just start with concepts and ideas—simply force them in to existence.

But THEE inquiry does not operate like that at all. It asks: how would a child, an ancient Roman, a man in the street, naturally proceed to inquire? What would they regard as fundamental? Where do I start when I wonder?

I think a person starts with noticing, that is to say by looking at and observing. The distinctions that are made are based on personal perception and existing ideas but that is all unconscious. Having made a variety of observations, then concepts may be drawn.

So observations are subjective and primary. They can be made scientific and objective by additional deliberate actions like replication or using other independent observers. Concepts are objective and social: once the concept is defined in an agreed way, then that is that.

I will need to do a pretty thorough review of that early work now. There may be other adjustments or even errors. The Typology will definitely require re-ordering. In my initial paper, the Type order hardly mattered. However, you all know that Types must be more deeply understood by plotting on a psychosocial 2x2 Table, and then that will lead to a Spiral of Growth and additional derived frameworks. Research has revealed that there is a major difference in the positioning of Type 1 (upper right quadrant) and Type 2 (extreme lower left quadrant): so swapping these about has massive knock-on effects.

None of this work had been done. If it had been, I would like to think that it would have thrown up the error. I look forward to developing the TET now. I do hope Tibor will be at my side from time to time, stopping me proposing anything silly. (I welcome other Tibors to help me remedy flaws in other frameworks.)

Framework Development

Your Better Self

Over the last quarter, I have posted the initial series of frameworks within this new Satellite. The Typology of Primal Quests was discovered within Purpose-RL6 inside the Root Hierarchy of Endeavour. As psychosocial life = endeavour, these Quests are «purposes of life». This is not the purpose of life that philosophers talk about. There is no instruction or admonition involved. Nor is there any especially deep thinking. Nor indeed (as it seems to me now) does a person have options.

It seems, rather, that each person comes to find that they have a type of Quest that feels absolutely right to them. This Quest will govern choices and endeavours insofar as a person feels free enough to embrace it. A person who is not reflective will not notice their Quest and will simply regard their life choices as what they do or what they feel like doing. But others might see the pattern.

It may well be difficult to identify your own Quest until later in life due to the many pressures of young adulthood. Also, a growing person experiments with different ways of being and relating as part of inner development. Perceiving the Quest of others can be difficult due to the overlay of practical pressures. I am still learning about the Primal Quests myself. I'm open to any ideas or questions.

There is a lot more to come in this series over the remainder of the year. The next section will use the Primal Quests to get to grips with our self-conscious human existence (as distinct from our animal existence). You may get some surprises, and possibly reassurance.

Communication: Use of Language

I can only repeat that this is the current big challenge. Much of the preparatory work is done, but I haven't yet started composition of topics.

Finally,

The THEEProject part of the website is currently being developed to move to html5: probably in early 2013. This will enable a more modern look and feel and make it easier for search engines. You will notice that every page will have its own distinctive URL, making topics of interest easier to bookmark using your browser. Various tools (like Favourites) currently provided from within the Project are now universally available from browsers, and these will be discontinued.

That's it till next time.

Thanks for reading this far and for supporting TOP.

Warren