20160814 Ice Cream Sundae #46: Summer sessions 07 Unknown

Hi , I’m back from a fantastic weekend in Los Angeles and the week went by in a flash. As previously mentioned I am participating in Partnership Explorations, a training & development course in which we’re inquiring into the nature of relationships, the conversations and language they’re made up of. There are many elements to it; one of the main ideas being that we’re considering all conversations from the perspective of imagining that they fit into four fields, and we shift from one to another all the time:

• Father / Child

• Mother / Child

• Sibling / Playmate

• Admirer / Admired

 I for example noticed how much I tend towards having Father / Child conversations, where I’m explaining things; working as a strategist my role is often that of an advisor, not necessarily far off some kind of figure of authority. I’m not sure which comes first though, if I tend to be that way so I was suited to the job, or if the job makes it so – for now it’s just interesting to notice. We spent time studying Michel Foucault’s The Order of Things, I mentioned the book last week. The book is archaeology of human sciences; in it the author defines three main eras in human history, or Epistèmes. He defines them as such: â€œHowever, if in any given culture and at any given moment, there is always only one episteme that defines the conditions of possibility of all knowledge, whether expressed in a theory or silently invested in a practice.†He studies and pulls apart human sciences and strives to demonstrate how different disciplines have more to do with one another in a same epistème than the same discipline in a different epistème. Said another way, in his theory biology has more to do with economics or mathematics in the same Renaissance epistème than biology in the Classical or Modern epistèmes. If it sounds complicated it’s because it is. The book is fascinating but dense. I was glad to have it conveniently explained to me in a course. I realised how much I like to think I’m fairly smart though I’m also pretty lazy - if I can take a short cut to appear smart without really doing the heavy lifting work of thinking I’ll take it more often than not. That said, when I take the time I really enjoy thinking properly too. We also had a great conversation about the ways in which we deal with the unknown. I usually wait and listen, assess situations before acting in any way. If I feel like I can, I’ll offer information and some kind of knowledge or explanation. I noted a couple of great quotes about the unknown: â€œI think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of uncertainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here. I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell.† - Richard Feynman â€œPenetrating so many secrets, we cease to believe in the unknowable. But there it sits nevertheless, calmly licking its chops†- H.L Mencken, Minority Report I’m looking forward to the next weekend of the course in September. There’s a book to read between each one, I’ve started the new one and it’s already brilliant, I recommend it. It’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Professor Yuval Noah Harari. Lastly, if you’re looking for something to listen to I highly recommend this episode of NPR Invisibilia about the myth of personalities. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday! Best,Willem

Share

+1

Share