Zonal Differentiation
Degrees in Sensitivity: Y-Axis
Given the practical and social significance of expressive sensitivity, it is useful to divide up the Y-axis into zones to reveal a progression in expressive power. This analysis also reveals similarities in otherwise very different methods
Y-Axis Bisection Summary:
- The lower half of the TET is less oriented with sensitivity and appears to require confidence in what is said:
- confidence in the lower zone is social and comes from being conformist,
- confidence in the upper zone is mental and comes from being analytic.
- The upper half of the TET is more oriented to sensitivity and appears to require development of awareness:
- awareness in the lower zone focuses on exteriors and is descriptive;
- awareness in the upper zone is penetrating and intrinsically revelatory.
Lower Half
In the Associative — Conceptual framework zone, expression is socially conformist and the degree of sensitivity required is naturally limited.
Detail:
- For the Conceptual-framework method, conformity results from the use of an accepted theoretical schema to facilitate discussion. So conformity is to eable communal intelligibility.
- For the Associative method, conformity provides for speed, ease of understanding and spontaneity in conversations within an in-group. So conformity is to enable local sociability.
In the Logical — Conceptual speculation zone, expression must conform to standard analytic requirements of clarity, consistency and coherence, so somewhat more sensitivity is required.
Detail:
- For the Conceptual-speculative method, analyses extend a given conceptual framework. So propositions involve interpretation and uncertainty and are based on internal validity.
- For the Logical method, analyses are expected to be automatically recognized as natural or self-evident. So propositions must be unequivocal and socially axiomatic.
Upper Half
In the Universal — Concrete zone, expression is about the articulation of details that are relevant to the situation and the recipient. Communications assume the recipient is immersed in the situation and the demands of sensitivity are descriptive.
Detail:
- For the Concrete method, descriptions are provided to enable the effective completion of steps in a procedure or task. Description is narrow, exact and usable.
- For the Universal method, communications are concerned to generate interest and engagement, which means activating identification with wishes, fears, values and such like. Description is therefore evocative and general.
In the Mythic — Gestalt zone, expression is based on language that is revelatory and enables emergence of particular mental states. The demand for awareness is correspondingly greater.
Details:
- For the Gestalt method, expression uses a wide range of literary techniques to illuminate some aspect of the human condition. So language strives to reveal a profound human reality.
- For the Mythic method, expression touches on spiritual states, fosters transcendence and makes good and evil immediate. So communications are about revealing a universal magical reality.
Degrees in Veridical Explication: X-Axis
Given the practical and social significance of explication, it is similarly useful to divide up the X-axis into zones to reveal a progression in strength. This analysis also reveals similarities in otherwise very different methods
X-Axis Bisection Summary:
- The left half of the TET appears to involve rather straightforward explication because the use of language is dominated by feelings.
- Feelings in the left side are pervasive because they are part of being human.
- Feelings in the right side are persuasive because
- The right half of the TET requires more thoughtful effortful and detailed explication:
- Thinking in the left side effort is specific to some practical or social matter ,
- Thinking in the right side more comprehensive and complicated in the extreme right zone.
Left Half
In the Associative — Mythic zone, explicationis direct if poorly veridical and easily understood with minimal elaboration. These methods are relatively primitive and their operation is inescapable.
Details:
- For the Associative method, pervasiveness exists because this is an easy and effortless way to use language with others. So pervasiveness is social.
- For the Mythic method, pervasiveness is a function of universal tendencies for magical thinking present since early childhood. So pervasiveness is personal.
In the Logical — Universal zone, explicationis planned and organised to ensure a sense of understanding. So persuasion depends on socialized expectations and conventional requirements.
Details:
- For the Logical method, persuasion is a result of using agreed axioms, self-evident assumptions and well-accepted or easily accepted principles. So the goal is general and theoretical.
- For the Universal method, persuasion is a result of activating basic human feelings and engaging common social values. So goal is cultural solidarity.
Right Half
In the Conceptual-speculation — Concrete zone, explication is about specifying something particular and well-defined within a larger field of interest.
Details:
- For the Conceptual-speculative method, specifying involves presenting a particular hypothetical generalization that is elaborated rationally so as to be plausible. Specification of the relationship is necessarily abstract and general.
- For the Concrete method, specifying involves a detailing of some particular complicated object or process , so that it can be closely followed or used by another person. Specification is necessarily practical and detailed.
In the Conceptual-framework — Gestalt zone, explication involves presenting a unifying account that purports to represent or reflect a diffusely bounded and inherently complicated field of interest.
Details:
- For the Conceptual-framework method, unifying is about welding together facts and concepts within a field into a coherent and consistent framework or paradigm that can be used as a context. Unification is about incorporating whatever is relevant in a way that is explicit and direct.
- For the Gestalt method, unifying is about revealing in a holistic fashion the multi-faceted significance of some matter in human terms. Unification is only possible by being using rhetorical mechanisms like metaphor or irony that are implicit and indirect.
If any of these allocations are puzzling, re-visit the TET-plot; and for more detail, review the Methods; or read on as more comparisons and contrasts are identified.
With this refinement of properties and positioning:
Originally posted: 4-Sep-2016. Last updated: 10-Feb-2023