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31st May 2007 | Draft
Dynamic Reframing of "Union"Implications for the coherence of knowledge, social organization and personal identity- / - Introduction "Union" Outmoded understandings of "union" Generic understandings of "union" Attributes of "union" Beyond the "intelligible" Playing with fundamental quaternaries Averting an institutional Apocalypse Emergent higher-order symbol as a cognitive/existential "keystone" Operational implications IntroductionIn an earlier discussion of the emerging significance of "union" (Emergence of a Union of Imaginative Associations engendered by a Union of Intelligible Associations from a Union of International Associations, 2007), the argument focused on the shifting significance in relation to the three initiatives mentioned. The argument presented there has been further developed here (including text from the other paper as appropriate for readability). The century-old Union of International Associations ("UIA1") aspired, certainly in the eyes of its founders, to a form of union dependent on the organization of knowledge -- its classification -- and the institutional consequences for harmonization, cooperation and coordination. This tendency is still to be found in many intergovernmental initiatives, notably those of the European Union and the United Nations. Efforts to reform and transform the UIA ("UIA1") have been reframed as effectively engendering a distinct "transitional" vehicle, usefully named as the Union of Intelligible Associations ("UIA2"). This has emphasized a strategic knowledge management function beyond the conventional information gathering and classifying preoccupations of UIA1. The fundamental challenge to UIA2, as presented there, usefully models similar inadequacies in many institutions variously seeking to enhance collective intelligence in response to information overload in the face of social and strategic complexity. Confronted by its own inadequacies, UIA2 is however understood there as having itself created a context for the emergence of a Union of Imaginative Associations ("UIA3"). This could be understood as more relevant to the integrative possibilities and culture of the times -- and to the strategic flexibility and forms of cognitive engagement for which they call. These three different "stages" are first described before subsequently exploring the necessarily unusual, counter-intuitive challenges to how they may be fruitfully understood as interrelated -- if UIA3 is to be of any significance. Given the assumptions readily made regarding the nature of "union" it is useful to develop the earlier argument, generalizing it to include the challenges of other initiatives, but especially those instigated as complements to the Union of Imaginative Associations, namely: Consistent with the self-reflexive emphasis of their approaches, "union" is inappropriately framed as any one of the ways it might be readily understood (as articulated below), rather it is a relationship between these whose nature is variously suggested by each -- and by other insights that may emerge. This understanding of "union" necessarily also applies to the relationship between the four new complementary initiatives (noted above). Such complementaries point to mutually counter-balancing echoes of a central process in the moment and beyond time. Together they form an emerging, overarching union of interweaving processes: a potential "pattern that connects". The nature of any union of significance is therefore not predefined by any form of understanding but is progressively and continually (re)discovered in time. Indeed, since "yoga" signifies "union" (in Sanskrit), the corollary may be that the challenge of any "union" of significance implies some form of "yoga". Such an approach is also a challenge to the implications for any new understanding of the European "Union", in the light of efforts at constitutional reform and popular credibility, and more generally of the "United" Nations, itself still in quest of reform after many decades. An indication of new thinking on "union" is evident in the proposed alternative to the divisive foreign policy of the Bush regime (as inspired by the neocon Project for the New American Century), namely a new bipartisan report by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (Princeton University), titled Forging a World of Liberty Under Law, US National Security in the 21st Century (2006). This notably proposes an appropriate charter for the establishment of a "concert of democracies". Some possible implications are discussed elsewhere (A Singable Earth Charter, EU Constitution or Global Ethic? 2006) "Union"In the case of the Union of International Associations, this may be seen as having been characterized by the intimate early relations that "UIA1" (through a "UIA0"?) had to the origins of the international classification sciences, especially through its close association (through Paul Otlet) with the International Institute of Bibliography (cf W Boyd Rayward, The Origins of Information Science and the International Institute of Bibliography / International Federation for Information and Documentation (FID), 1997). In the development of the Universal Decimal Classification (UDC), it is understandable that the "universal classification" of knowledge was a fundamental dimension of the early understanding of "union" -- employed by UIA1 through to the 1960s. Breaking away from the UDC, this understanding was further developed within UIA1 in the light of the following:
Outmoded understandings of "union"Implicit in this argument and in the work of the complexity sciences in recent decades is a recognition that it is no longer fruitful to constrain understandings of "union" to:
Such misplaced concreteness and rigidity, as reflected in existing institutional forms of "union", is rendered even less appropriate to the future by the ego attachments to their elaboration and operation, whether by their founders or those whose careers are dependent upon their unchanging conventional nature. Typically those who over-identify with such a form of "union" tend to obstruct the development of its agenda -- however well thought out. Such outmoded approaches to "union" contrast markedly with the emergent forms of far greater flexibility that are implicit in virtual initiatives and configurations enabled in cyberspace. Generic understandings of "union"Other approaches to a more generic understanding of "union", as explored through UIA2, under the notional auspices of UIA1, have included:
Attributes of "union"Such "union" necessarily evokes, or is dependent upon, other attributes that may variously include:
Beyond the "intelligible"As noted above, the Union of Imaginative Associations may be understood as having been engendered by the Union of Intelligible Associations. The challenge of the latter is one of "un-intelligibility" -- as discussed in terms of the use of a representation of the Mandelbrot set as its logo (Challenges to Comprehension Implied by the Logo of the Union of Intelligible Associations, 2007). That argument is developed here to highlight the nature of the challenge of understanding the "union" between the four complementary initiatives -- or any analogous set for that matter.. Real vs Imaginary / Positive vs Negative: The complex numbers are positioned on a complex plane (of which the image above is one representation) in terms of two axes. By convention, the "real" dimension is represented on the horizontal axis (x-axis), whereas the "imaginary" dimension is represented on the vertical axis (y-axis) -- as shown in the Wikipedia entry. For the purposes of the logo, the axes have been rotated 90 degrees to the right -- with the positive-real below (and the negative-real above), whilst the positive-imaginary is to the right (and the negative imaginary to the left). Given the widely remarked resemblance to a meditating figure, this rotates the image from "sleeping" to "seated". Seen as a Buddha figure, this has notably given rise to "Buddhabrot" representations, using a special graphical rendering technique (Melinda Green, The Buddhabrot Technique; image; video) that reinforces the possibility of using astrophysical models to encode the universe of knowledge (Towards an Astrophysics of the Knowledge Universe: from astronautics to noonautics? 2007) . The challenge of the Union of Intelligible Associations was to interrelate disparate sets of conceptual entities -- such as organizations, problems, strategies, values, state of awareness and development, metaphors, meetings, legal instruments (treaties, etc) -- of significance beyond the preoccupations of individual nations. The following table could be used to extend the mathematical understanding of real-imaginary/positive-negative -- beyond that of the complexity sciences -- honouring some of the self-referential challenges of complex adaptive systems (Consciously Self-reflexive Global Initiatives: Renaissance zones, complex adaptive systems, and third order organizations, 2007).
A more generic "Mandelbrot set" could then be understood as the result of mapping the features of complex collective reality (notably the entities profiled by the Union of Intelligible Associations) onto a complex plane in terms of their real-imaginary, positive-negative characteristics. Some features falling outside the boundary between chaos and order -- the boundary of the set as depicted -- would then be understood as "un-intelligible", and not forming part of collective reality. This generic reframing relates the positive-negative polarization much more closely to that evident in Taoist understandings of "creative"-"receptive". The polarization "real"-"imaginary" also then relates more closely to the subtleties of enactivism and the embodied mind (see Documents relating to Polarization, Dilemmas and Duality; Documents relating to Existential Engagement and Embodiment) Languages and epistemological frameworks: However the question then becomes what language or epistemological framework is appropriate to representing and navigating such a complex reality (see Documents Relating to Language). A more insightful response is that no single language is adequate to this task (Navigating Alternative Conceptual Realities: clues to the dynamics of enacting new paradigms through movement, 2002). It might be hoped that a set of complementary frameworks would be appropriate -- notably as caricatured elsewhere (12 Complementary Languages for Sustainable Governance, 2003). Better formulated distinctions of this kind might be made in terms of Ken Wilber's AQAL, Magoroh Maruyama's mindscapes, or other systems (Systems of Categories Distinguishing Cultural Biases, 1993; Richard E Nisbett, The Geography of Thought: how Asians and Westerners think differently...and why, 2003). On this point, and in addition to the above author's, the work on a biocultural paradigm merits attention (Maria M Colavito. The Heresy of Oedipus and the Mind/Mind Split: a study of the biocultural origins of civilization, 1995; Antonio T de Nicolas, Religion: the last weapon of discrimination and the bio-cultural corrective, 2007; Neurobiology, Communities, Religion: a bio-cultural study, 1998). This is valuable, whether in terms of the challenging interplay of five modules of the human brain or of the need for distinct, but complementary, languages to order experience of richer significance. Particularly relevant is the challenging fluidity through which the neural networks associated with distinct brain modules must necessarily be employed. Such arguments point to the real challenge of intelligibility -- a comprehension barrier or "glass ceiling" inhibiting more comprehensive insight. Complementary emergent initiatives: This is one justification for reframing such challenges within the framework of four emergent complementary initiatives that might be understood as embodying to some degree the epistemological challenges of the above table:
As with the Mandelbrot set, the challenge is the exploration of the interface between chaos and order. In this sense a potentially more interesting way in which to envisage the emergent initiatives "engendered" by the "Union of Intelligible Associations" as associated with zones on the complex plane within the boundaries of the set. Playing with fundamental quaternariesThere is of course a long tradition, explored through a variety of metaphors, regarding the fundamental significance to be associated with quaternary systems of categories and framings of ways of knowing. Here it is considered most fruitful to consider these quaternaries as essentially incomplete metaphors indicative of the central challenge of understanding -- in the light of the unobvious essential relationship within any quaternary, and notably that between them when they derive from different cultures. This challenge is helpfully highlighted by insights from interparadigmatic dialogue articulated by Kinhide Mushakoji (Global Issues and Interparadigmatic Dialogue, 1988) regarding the quadrilemma more characteristic of Eastern logics. Here it may be usefully applied to the case being made for a dynamic dimension to "union" rather than a purely static one. A richer pattern would be:
The elusive nature of "union" clearly combines all these conditions. This does point to the challenge of having named the UN as the "United" Nations. There is no inherent understanding of reform. Especially interesting is the continuing search for a "unified" field theory in fundamental physics. This specifically seeks to determine the relationship between the four fundamental forces. From from strongest to weakest these are:
A unified field theory attempts to bring these four force-mediating fields together into a single framework. Inspired by this search, various efforts have been made to explore analogues in the psycho-social domain, notably in relation to understandings of a spiritual domain. Many of these are of course considered meaningless by physicists who have no interest in the psycho-social domain in which they pursue their Nobel Prizes. One interesting case is Lawrence W. Fagg (Electromagnetism and the Sacred: at the frontier of spirit and matter, 1999) a former physicist. More challenging are the heavily researched proposals on the Unified Field of Natural Law, the holistic transcendental field underlying all manifest phenomena found in nature, as promoted by the Maharishi University of Management, notably in the light of insights from vedic culture. Another, holistic quantum relativity, also seeks to integrate spirituality with science. A curious commonality to both physical and psycho-social initiatives is the emphasis on "unified". It might be argued that in both cases this omits the function of the observer -- or too readily assumes that the observer's comprehension will ensure some form of closure. As with the "United" Nations, it does not allow for the attitude of someone who was not consulted as to their identification with "we the peoples" -- and may thereby exemplify the dis-united nature of that collective initiative. More interesting from an epistemological perspective is the philosophical study of Antonio de Nicolas of the Rg Veda in requiring four languages, rather than one, in order to convey the contrasting natures of its meaning (Meditations through the Rg Veda, 1978). As discussed in more detail elsewhere in relation to other four-fold frameworks (Threshold of Comprehensibility: a fourfold minimal system? 1983), these are:
Conceptual movement, and development in general, takes place through the elaboration of constellations of categories in which each category is context and structure dependent. Opposite or reciprocal possibilities can be perceived as equally relevant, whether co-present or succeeding each other. As noted by de Nicolas: "Any perspective remains just one out of a group of equally valid perspectives...but no song has so universal an appeal that it terminates the invention of new ones...the function of any language is to make clear its own dependence on, and reference to, other linguistic systems." Later he notes: "In a language ruled by the criteria of sound, perspectives, the change of perspectives and vision, stand for what musicologists call "modulation". Modulation in music is the ability to change keys within a composition. To focus within this language, and by its criteria, is primarily the activity of being able to run the scale backwards and forwards, up and down, with these sudden shifts in perspectives. Through this ability, the singer, the body, the song and the perspectives become an inseparable whole. In this language, transcendence is precisely the ability to perform the song, without any theoretical construct impeding its movement a priori, or determining the result of following such movement a priori. Nor can any theoretical compromise substitute for the discovery of the movement of "modulation" itself in history. The human body would then be asked to lose the memory of its origins; a task the human body refuses to do by its constant return to crisis." (p.192) More recently de Nicolas has addressed, in the light of the above, the challenging issue of the relations between scientific and spiritual ways of knowing in the light of the clusters of neural networks variously triggered and mutually engaged by these concerns (Neurobiology, Communities, Religion: a bio-cultural study, 1998). The challenge of comprehending "union" may perhaps be usefully caricatured by respectfully assuming that its existential reality is as resistant to assumptions about being "grasped" as has been made evident by feminists (cf Beyond Harassment of Reality and Grasping Future Possibilities: learnings from sexual harassment as a metaphor, 1996). There is some charm to understanding reality as presenting itself so as to evoke the following set of complementary reactions:
Given the psycho-active dynamics of the above quaternaries, it is perhaps useful to seek tentative simplistic correspondences with the four complementary strategic initiatives as follows, purely as a basis for further reflection:
Averting an institutional ApocalypseElsewhere the metaphor of Armageddon was used to illustrate the challenge of an archetypal failure of "union" (Spontaneous Initiation of Armageddon: a heartfelt response to systemic negligence, 2004). A related myth may be used to question how the many aging institutions of the 20th century can transform their dreams and inspirations into forms appropriate to the 21st century? In a world increasingly challenged by faith-based governance, unmanageable crises, policy "surprises", and the expectations of Apocalypse soon, what might be understood as the "four horsemen" of some international institutional Apocalypse? This frame is used to highlight a possible remedial responses in the light of Paul Otlet's original dream for UIA1 The predicted triumph of chaos over order (consecrated by physicists' Second Law of Thermodynamics) calls for shifting beyond the possibilities of the "intelligible" order to the "imaginative" -- if not to the "inspiration" of faith-based policy-making. Hence the need for a "Union of Imaginative Associations" to sustain new thinking and the excitement of shifting paradigms -- mitigating dependence on psychedelic and other surrogates to stave off boredom. This is an operational transformation of Otlet's original focus on hierarchical "classification" as the static key to what is now clearly a challenge of dynamic coherence in response to insights emerging in evolving rapidly within increasingly virtual networks. A second horseman is that identified by management cybernetician Stafford Beer (under the name Le Chatelier's Principle) whereby, like any competent hydra, the institutional system adapts to initiatives for remedial social change -- that it happily welcomes -- such as to completely nullify the desired effects of that change. Hence the need for a psychosocial analogue to the recently launched ITER mega-project to develop a nuclear fusion reactor -- an analogue that might be described as a "Cognitive Fusion Reactor" -- an imaginal transformation of energy resourcing (ITER-8). Where Otlet hoped for a necessary degree of operational focus through normalization and coordination of international programme initiatives, here the challenge is how to configure the pattern of collective initiatives such as to ensure sustainable benefits from psycho-social energy. Ironically research on cognitive fusion is currently primarily of relevance to the comprehensible integration of information required by fighter pilots in making split-second decisions. The third horseman might be that identified by psychiatrist Ross Ashby (and known to cyberneticians as Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety) whereby strategic failure is guaranteed through ensuring lack of requisite variety of insight in seeking to navigate or control a challenging turbulent environment. Typically this takes the form of eliminating consideration of possible alternatives, possibly under the recently exemplified banner of "binary logic". Where Otlet, through the UIA, successfully brought together the executives of international associations to focus the curriculum of an early "International University", here the transformed challenge is to enable a "University of Earth" to harness understanding of the variety of grounded patterns of nature that so successfully embody sustainable development -- a learning environment for ecosyntegrity (extending an insight of Stafford Beer). The final horseman might be that exemplified by the widely recognized consequences of Murphy's Law, but better articulated as "systemantics" (in John Gall's exploration of how and why institutional systems tend to fail). This is typically evidenced by the emergence of corruption and nepotism in international systems, and denial of it in any public discourse about it, notably on the part of the relevant authorities and academic disciplines. Where the UIA played a key role in the early professionalization of international meetings through its International Congress on Congress Organization, here the transformed challenge might best be embodied in a "Union of the Whys" as a focus for critical insight on the challenges of dialogue processes amongst those with a claim to the wisdom vital to any coherent response to the future. The challenge is of course to understand the nature of the complementary relationship between such a fourfold institutional response. Emergent higher-order symbol as a cognitive/existential "keystone"Integrative tools: As noted earlier, it has become relatively clear that the disciplines individually, or variously clustered and integrated according to currently favoured interdisciplinary methodologies (including the systems sciences and complexity sciences), have not proven capable of furnishing integrative approaches of requisite power and credibility for the challenges of the times. This is apparent both with regard to mega-problems (eg environmental degradation, regional conflict) and to seemingly simple problems (eg marginalized social groups, delivery of health care). Such failure opens the door to the dubious abuses of faith-based reality and justifies the ambiguously quixotic title of the dropping knowledge initiative (cf Enabling a Living Library: reconciling "free voices" and "intellectual propriety", 2006). The capacity to get collective intelligence to work, to manage knowledge intelligently and fruitfully, to augment intellect and to elicit wisdom, is unfortunately inadequate to the challenges in the daily news headlines. Those reflecting on the significance of the World Wide Web, and its possible future variants (Web 2.0, Semantic Web, etc), have waxed enthusiastic regarding its significance for humanity -- even associating it closely with the emergence of "planetary consciousness" (cf Ervin Laszlo, Planetary Consciousness: our next evolutionary step, Cybernetics and Human Knowing, 1997; The Imaginal within the Cosmos: the noosphere and cyberspace). This echoes Paul Otlet's reflections on such potential, although he saw a degree of integration of knowledge being achieved through use of the Universal Decimal Classification. Missing from reflections on the future of the web is any sense of how knowledge is fruitfully to be integrated and how it is to facilitate integrative reflection -- rather than reinforce tendencies to tunnel vision (facilitated by "drill down" search engines) and groupthink as a characteristic consequence of fragmented disciplines and information overload. The challenge can only increase through current initiatives to digitise all books. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||