THEE Typologies

Unusual Hierarchies

THEE Typologies are hierarchies formally, but they are not holistic because the Types do not imply each other. Ordering is not obvious, and, superficially, there is no obvious reason why additional Types might not exist. More than one ordering can be envisaged in some cases, and the taxonomically correct order is not obvious. Knowing the correct order enables derivation of further taxonomic frameworks.

Principal Typologies are the source of the control complex in their Domain and have received the most attention. Their Types are complex systems that determine the mindset or approach that we take to issues relevant to the originating Primary Hierarchy. More in the next Topic.

Typologies exist in four or five distinct forms within the Taxonomy. Numbers in brackets show how many are currently discovered or provisionally assumed. Click to go directly.

There is possibly also a Quaternary Hierarchy/Typology.


Nested in the 6th Level of the Root Hierarchy is the Root Typology containing Primal Quests that orient us to obtaining happiness or meaning.

Root Typology

The Root Typology, like the Root Hierarchy, has unusual features.

It contains apparently incompatible Types, although the degree of incompatibility is not certain at this stage. For example, it proved possible to use the ordering to develop a Tree of Good and Evil that exists universally, at least, in the imagination.

It seems that this Typology is personal rather than organizational or social. It determines 7 different ways to find happiness, named Primal Quests. The Quest appears as an over-arching orientation that governs a person's choices over their lifetime. Read more here.

It does not seem that this Root Typology has a Style Hierarchy that permits a Q-expansion because something akin to this appears to occur in the Root Hierarchy instead.

The 6th Root Type, Obedience, contains a further nested Tertiary Hierarchy (Typology), which is holistic. This is similar to the finding in the Framework ofPurpose-PH6. See Ch.8 in Working with Values.

For Tertiary Typologies, see below.

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Principal Typologies

The Path in THEE from the Root Cell, WILL, to Approaches to  Developing Identity (Principal Typology)  by way of the Framework of Experience.

The Principal Typologies are Secondary Hierarchies (PH'•) nested within the 6th Level of Primary Hierarchies (PH•), as illustrated at right for PH'4. These Types are identity-defining methods for handling situations and have overt controlling power, both socially and psychologically i.e.:

• as a doctrine ruling a social group
• as a mentality ruling a person.

The Principal Typology Hierarchy has Levels that are incompatible and incommensurable because of conflicting assumptions. This means that only one Type may be used in any particular situation, and none is «the best» in any absolute sense—despite claims to the contrary by adherents. All Types appear to be necessary and universally present. All define methods that are commonly required within relevant group situations e.g. in an organization or community.

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Subsidiary Typologies (Q-Typologies)

Subsidiary Typologies form when Principal Typologies are differentiated by a 4-Level Style Hierarchy (formerly called a Modal Hierarchy) that contains distinct and progressive «styles of operating». The result is 28 Levels/Types (i.e. 7 Levels x 4 styles). This is called a Q-expansion, and it allows a clustering of Subsidiary Types into overlapping Q-domains with Q-Hierarchies, Q-Typologies and Q-Spirals.

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There are 49 of these Subsidiary Typologies, because there are 7 Principal Typologies and each generates 7 Subsidiary Typologies.

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Tertiary Typologies

Principal Typology with the 6th Level (Social Being)  containing a Tertiary Hierarchy of  the Natural Moral Institutions in society.

Relatively little is known about these Typologies. The current conjectures are as follows:

For example: In the Framework of Experience-PH4, L'6-Social being generates a Tertiary Hierarchy whose Types/Levels are the Natural Moral Institutions-PH"4 of a society. These institutions determine much of our functioning as social beings. This structure may be holistic because the Levels seem to affect each other. No Quaternary Hierarchy has been identified to date within the L”6-Governance System.

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Originally posted: August 2009; Last updated 24-Jan-2014.