Dear Organslearners,
Don Dwiggins <d.l.dwiggins@computer.org> writes
in reply to my LO17546 --
> > The seven essentialities also make me very afraid. Knowledge of them
> > also gives me the power to destroy on a scale as never has been known
> > before. It is like the knowledge of nuclear power - we can use it to
> > make a nuclear generator of electricty for constructive purposes, but
> > we can also use it to make a nuclear bomb for destructive purposes.
> > Were it not for the flame of uncondional love within me, I would
> > certainly have misused my knowledge of them - I have certainly been
> > tempted to do so.
> Could unconditional love be another essentiality? Or is it in a different
> dimension? It sounds as though it's important, if not essential, for a
> successful emergence.
Don, there are seven essentialities. Your question asks for the
possibility of an eighth essentiality. Can that be possible?
I have written before that these seven essentialities could be
split in many more essentials. The result of eight or more
entities (some of them still essentialities) are called essentials
and not essentialities any more. It is because they have seen the
light in a different way than the original discovery of them.
This fragmentation of the seven essentialities will soon lead to
severe linear thinking, something we should avoid. Furthermore, I do
not think that by fragmenting we will ever arrive at identifying one
of these fragments as unconditional love. It is because we look in
the wrong direction for the answer.
We can also combine the seven essentialities into less than seven
essentials. Again, we should call the result essentials and not
essentialities. The danger of combining them is by far not as serious
as fragmenting them. The only danger is that we might neglect one or
two essentialities in the complexity of the combination. Allow me to
show you how they migh be combined.
Consider the list of seven essentialities:
"becoming-being" (liveness)
"identitity-categoricity" (sureness)
"associativity-monadicity" (wholeness)
"connect-beget" (fruitfulness)
"quantity-limit" (spareness)
"quality-variety" (otherness)
"open-paradigm" (openness)
By combining "associativity-monadicity" (wholeness) and
"quality-variety" (otherness), we obtain the principle of
unity-in-variety. The South African philospher HG Stoker considered
this principle to be most important in creating a healthy society or
maintaining the integrity of any ecosystem.
By combining "identitity-categoricity" (sureness) and
"associativity-monadicity" (wholeness), we obtain the principle of
fidelity. Fidelity has two sides to it: veracity (accurate truth) and
integrity (complete whole). For example, an audio amplifier is said
to have a high fidelity if it amplifies any frequency without
distortion and at least all frequencies of the sound spectrum.
By combining "becoming-being" (liveness), "identitity-categoricity"
(sureness) and "associativity-monadicity" (wholeness), we obtain
the principle of mathematics. All mathematical systems have three
common patterns. The one is a subpattern consisting of elements
(beings) and operations (becomings). The other two are superpatterns
called the axiom of identity and the axiom of associativity.
But what do we obtain when we combine all seven of them? The name of
the result depends on the level of emergence in which we are working.
If we think of the family (parents-children), the seven
essentialities can be summarised by the concept parenthood. It is
interesting to note that the word parent comes from the Latin
"pareo"=beget and that the word "child" comes from the Gothic word
"kindel"=to-give-birth. In other words, both these two words refer to
the propagation of the species by emergence.
The stresses and changes (entropic force-flux oairs) of modern
society has led to so much chaos that parenthood is continously in
danger of immergences - ablative and explosive. Parents find it
difficult to know what parenthood involves. The seven essentialities,
namely liveness, sureness, wholeness, fruitfulness, spareness,
otherness and openness unfold parenthood into seven dimensions. These
dimensions help us to accomplish the mission of parenthood, namely to
assist our children in emerging and digesting into adulthood - mature
people who can create their own future. Thus, Don, your last sentence
makes much sense for me
These dimensions also allow me to articulate one of my main
objections against modern schooling systems: their failure to
recognise fully fledged parenthood (loco parentis). How many children
leave school with a well sense for liveness, sureness, wholeness,
fruitfulness, spareness, otherness and openness?
If the level of emergence is that of an organisation, the concept
leadership summarises these seven essentialities.
At the highest level of emergence the seven essentialities combine
into "agape" and not merely "eros" or "philos". The closest
translation for the Greek word "agape" would be unconditional love.
Again the seven essentialities help me to articulate the seven
main facets of unconditional love. Try to think of
love without liveness,
love without sureness,
love without wholeness,
love without fruitfulness,
love without spareness,
love without otherness,
love without openness.
It is impossible to conceptualise such a "love".
One of the most interesting studies for me as a christian was to
trace the ministry of Jesus Christ, the personification of
unconditional love, in terms of these seven essentialities.
Don, thank you again, for reminding us to seek for the relationship
between unconditional love and the seven essentialities.
Best wishes
--At de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
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