Naming the Purpose-PH6 Fundamentals

Background

When developing «purpose» in the early 1980's, I initially imagined that there were only 5 levels. The reason for this was my focus on purpose-like concepts/entities required in organizations and for projects. This research was published as Purposes and the Translation of Values into Action (1986) and became Ch.4 in Working with Values. Only later, did I realize that its top level, social value-L5, pointed to higher contextual levels that were also forms of "value" (as well as purpose). This later research was published in 1989 and became Ch. 5 in Working with Values.

Values seem to be more directly related to natural human groups than to work: as explained in Ch. 6 in Working with Values. The primary overlap between natural groups and work groups was to be found in communities, which constitute the «wider society» of any work effort. Organised work groups and their projects are primarily expected to support communities and their members, and there are some reciprocal expectations.

However, the higher pure values, value systems (L6) and ultimate values (L7), are not in any way controlled or controllable by projects mounted by work groups. The reverse is the case: these values can shape and influence what projects are done and how they are completed.

The context and content seem evident here.

Projects are the content. (The project's explicit purposes will determine who ends up in the work group, and what they do.)

Higher values are the context. These purposes determine whether or not the projects are deemed worthwhile.

The Two Trees

Click on thumbnails to see provisional Tree Centres and Channels.

PH6K

If we now consider the Tree-PH6K and its internal duality, it seems evident that:

  • the Centres and Channels in the L1-L4 Content section sustain projects and their constituent activities.
  • the Centres and Channels in the L5-L7 Context section sustain social life in relevant communities.

This suggests that Requirements for a «Worthwhile Project» could be a reasonable name, one that captures its function. (Of course, in practice, a project may not be deemed worthwhile by some communities—but that is precisely what the Tree can help you determine.)

"Project" has the widest possible meaning.Closed It must not be restricted e.g. to public works, new buildings, welfare services—but rather expanded as widely as possible to any specific and coherent set of purposive activities.

PsH6K

In Ch. 10 of Working with Values, the Structural Hierarchy-PsH6 was named: Realizing Values. It seems evident that the only way to realize values is through worthwhile projects (PH6K).

The 28 Groups in the Structural Hierarchy, taken together, are component entities for realizing values.

Old Terminology: ClosedThe lower 4 Groupings (Content) were referred to as "Building Blocks" (Ch.10) and the higher 3 Groupings (Context) were referred to as "Controlling Conceptions" (Ch.12). These labels were useful and indicative at the time, but they are too vague for our current purposes.

The Structural Hierarchy Tree (PsH6K), is not yet published or posted. However, the Centres are based on the requirements that define the sH Groupings:

  • the Centres and Channels in the G1-G4 Content section sustain communities via choices of purpose and values that are believed or judged to ensure betterment i.e. the content is about evolving.
  • the Centres and Channels in the G5-G7 Context section sustain the capability of a community to meet the challenge of its own change from within or without i.e. the context is about community as an entity.

This suggests that Requirements for a «Community Evolution» could be a reasonable name, i.e. one that captures its function. However, there are other possibilities.

Note that this terminology allows for evolution that is not communal e.g. within an industry. Such evolution only uses the lower 4 Centres.

Combination

Considering these two Trees together, it seems that a Community Evolution (PsH6K) depends on Worthwhile Projects (PH6K) within it. The totality of projects—worthwhile or otherwise, large and small, personal and organization—lead to a Realization of Values (PsH6). Values define group identity and so this change in character is the essence of community evolution.

  A Worthwhile Project   A Community Evolution
Internal
Duality 		Primal Vehicle
PH6K 		Primal Effect
PsH6
Primal Field PsH6K
Context
L7-L5 		Community
Sustenance 		Realizing Values
28 Components		 Community
Potentials
Content
L4-L1 		Project
Sustenance		 Community
Sustenance

Originally posted: 15-Feb-2015. Last amended:  4-Sep-2016. Reviewed 12-Jan-2023.