Replying to LO29500 --
Dear Organlearners,
Barry Mallis <theorgtrainer@earthlink.net> writes:
>You asked me if I... "have perhaps any explanation by
>Gordon [him]self how he understands the structure and
>process of "synectics" paradoxes?"
(snip)
>Bill believed that most of the time our problem-solving
>process is hidden. The thinking steps are subconscious,
>and so unavailable for manipulation or control. He made
>the steps conscious, purposeful. The four steps are:
(snip)
>Hegel's dialectic is paralleled in the four "Box Steps" (the
>steps I described above) as follows: Thesis= Paradox of
>the problem; Antithesis=Analogue; and Synthesis= (Unique
>Activity/Equivalent) New Idea.
(snip)
>Ah me, those were the good ol' days.
>
>I do hope I have shed a ray of light.
Greetings dear Barry,
Thank you very much Barry for giving such a fine synopsis of Bill Gordon's
work. You have been priviledged to work with such a creative man.
I was not thinking of the four steps itself, since they suggest to me that
Bill was tacitly aware of entropic force-flux pairs and how their entropy
production is manifested in some new mental organisation-- the unique
idea. That is why i also added the question on Hegel's dialecticism. Hegel
was also tacitly aware to entropy dynamics. The connections to Hegel's
work which you have described, is it Bill's or is it yours? For if it is
Bill's, then it strengthen my hunch that Bill's synectics is a way to
articulate entropy production and its consequences for mental evolution.
The "paradox" provides for the entropic force, the "analogue" provides for
the entropic flux, the "unique activity" guides (with the 7Es in it) the
entropy produced into its manifestation, the "equivalent new idea".
It applies not only to "problem-solving", but also to the other four ESCs
(Elementary Sustainers of Creativity): "thoughts-exchanging" (dialogue),
"exemplar-exploring", "game-playing" and "art expressing". Come to think
of it, last Saturday night i drenched my soul with Beethoven's piano
sonatas. Have you ever thought of explaining his compositions with
synectics? By the way, Beethoven was very fond of studying Goethe's work.
Hegel himself admits that idea of dialecticism formed in him through
studying Goethe's work. (By this i do not mean that the idea came from
Goethe.)
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@postino.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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