Discover A New Way Of Thinking :-)
Discover A New Way Of Thinking
My Psychosis, My Bicycle, and I:
The Self-Organization of Madness by Fritz B. Simon, et al (Hardcover - March 1, 1996)
The title itself is already a real eyecatcher, isn`t it?
But dont get the author wrong: this is NOT a textbook of psychiatry.
It is more about a theory of cognition.
This book is very informative, particularly chapter 4 is a MUST READ for everyone (!) who deals with communication.
Simon demonstrates, that the common ""transmitter + receiver model"
(a good technical, mechanical model, of course) is not only not useful,
but even rather harmful (!), when applied to communication between human beings.
We do NOT transmit or send so called "news" or "messages" or "information" AT ALL.
What we do transmit or send are only SIGNALS (!)
to which the other person then attributes / ascribes a certain meaning!
A meaning that is not enclosed in the words theirselves, but is
constructed (!) by THE person who has received these signals!
And this is a tremendous difference!
Just a difference which makes a difference!
To name only one example of Simon himself:
When a siren is wailing at noon, then people hear this signal + then
they ascribe a meaning to this signal:
eg nuclear war or lunch break?
This book is a very good introduction to the radical constructivism.
And that is an epistemology eg theory of cognition.
Some people think that the radical constructivism is a NEW
epistemology. That is completly wrong.
The roots of this theory go back to the ancient Greeks eg
it is more than 2000 years old.
But it was never the main stream philosophy, but only a side stream.
Interestingly, many poets were radical constructivists such as
Shakespeare, Goethe, Hermann Hesse + many more.....
And "the whole story of introducing the radical constructivism"
already starts in the preface - with a weird + funny wording.
The gist of what he writes is something like:
"Do you, too, belong to those people who believe that they hold
now a book in their hands + read that book?"
This book is written in a style which I find fantastic:
funny, humorous, terrific (!) puns!
The world famous Paul Watzlawick praises this book to the skies
+ he describes it not only as a bestseller, but even as a "future classic"!
Simon particularly proves that the classical Aristotelian
bi-valent logic with its "either-or" is NOT adequate at all
in order to describe phenomena!
Unfortunately, he doesn't give any reference to the POLYvalent (!)
logic by Gotthard Guenther, a German philosopher
who was teaching in the US.
My overall judgement:
excellent book which you will read with much pleasure!
I recommend this book VERY warmly to everyone!
By the way:Originally Fritz B. Simon was a physician and
a SYSTEMIC psychotherapist. (systemic therapy).
He is now professor of leadership + organization
at the private elite university of Witten/Herdecke in Germany.
To close with a radical constructivist`s quote:
"There is nothing either good or bad, but ==> thinking makes it so
"Shakespeare, Hamlet
More usefull info you will find at
http://radicalconstructivism.com
This post is also available at:
http://www.legendgames.net/showstory.asp?page=blognews/stories/ST0000068.txt
---
My Psychosis, My Bicycle, and I:
The Self-Organization of Madness by Fritz B. Simon, et al (Hardcover - March 1, 1996)
The title itself is already a real eyecatcher, isn`t it?
But dont get the author wrong: this is NOT a textbook of psychiatry.
It is more about a theory of cognition.
This book is very informative, particularly chapter 4 is a MUST READ for everyone (!) who deals with communication.
Simon demonstrates, that the common ""transmitter + receiver model"
(a good technical, mechanical model, of course) is not only not useful,
but even rather harmful (!), when applied to communication between human beings.
We do NOT transmit or send so called "news" or "messages" or "information" AT ALL.
What we do transmit or send are only SIGNALS (!)
to which the other person then attributes / ascribes a certain meaning!
A meaning that is not enclosed in the words theirselves, but is
constructed (!) by THE person who has received these signals!
And this is a tremendous difference!
Just a difference which makes a difference!
To name only one example of Simon himself:
When a siren is wailing at noon, then people hear this signal + then
they ascribe a meaning to this signal:
eg nuclear war or lunch break?
This book is a very good introduction to the radical constructivism.
And that is an epistemology eg theory of cognition.
Some people think that the radical constructivism is a NEW
epistemology. That is completly wrong.
The roots of this theory go back to the ancient Greeks eg
it is more than 2000 years old.
But it was never the main stream philosophy, but only a side stream.
Interestingly, many poets were radical constructivists such as
Shakespeare, Goethe, Hermann Hesse + many more.....
And "the whole story of introducing the radical constructivism"
already starts in the preface - with a weird + funny wording.
The gist of what he writes is something like:
"Do you, too, belong to those people who believe that they hold
now a book in their hands + read that book?"
This book is written in a style which I find fantastic:
funny, humorous, terrific (!) puns!
The world famous Paul Watzlawick praises this book to the skies
+ he describes it not only as a bestseller, but even as a "future classic"!
Simon particularly proves that the classical Aristotelian
bi-valent logic with its "either-or" is NOT adequate at all
in order to describe phenomena!
Unfortunately, he doesn't give any reference to the POLYvalent (!)
logic by Gotthard Guenther, a German philosopher
who was teaching in the US.
My overall judgement:
excellent book which you will read with much pleasure!
I recommend this book VERY warmly to everyone!
By the way:Originally Fritz B. Simon was a physician and
a SYSTEMIC psychotherapist. (systemic therapy).
He is now professor of leadership + organization
at the private elite university of Witten/Herdecke in Germany.
To close with a radical constructivist`s quote:
"There is nothing either good or bad, but ==> thinking makes it so
"Shakespeare, Hamlet
More usefull info you will find at
http://radicalconstructivism.com
This post is also available at:
http://www.legendgames.net/showstory.asp?page=blognews/stories/ST0000068.txt
---
posted by Norbert Sczepanski at 8:11 AM
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