Leslie, responding to Bob, wrote:
"I believe that such fuzzy interpretations could be very useful in
understanding issues of leadership, competence and learning. Fuzzy here
refers to the notion that we need not be tied to the either A or not A
discontinuity. The possibility exists that something could be both A and
not A in varying degrees of "A"ness."
Leslie, I'm going to ask a few questions, because I'm a little confused by
this.
Let me state up front I'm a person who likes concretes. And so my
questions will be tainted by this predilection. . .
It sounds like what you're describing is a conceptual breakdown. A is A,
and cannot be a B or a C or any other letter in the alphabet. A tiger is a
tiger; it's not a lion, cheetah, or leopard. . .it's a cheetah. But
tigers, lions, cheetahs, and leopards a ll share some common attributes
(i.e large cats, carnivores, but then there are some real differences. .
.lions live in communities, cheetahs and tigers don't - - and I don't know
about leopards). Our ability as human beings to conceptualize lays in our
a bility to make distinctions in objects we observe, allowing us to
categorize and integrate at the same time.
The more clearly we can conceptually define an object, the better we are
able to properly categorize it, and integrate it with other concepts. This
process allows us to see varying degrees of similarity between one or more
objects, while still making the distinctions that bring clarity and allow
intelligent integration (by intelligent integration I mean integrating
concepts in such a way that there are no conflicts between them).
It sounds like you're proposing a type of thinking that moves away from
the categorization and integration approach, and seeking for some middle
ground. That's an interesting idea. . .but I don't see, right off the top
of my head, how such an approach increases either the clarity with which I
interpret the world, or how it improves my ability to interact with that
world on a day to day basis.
Any help?
[Host's Note: This reminds me of my first exposure to "Fuzzy Logic", a
serious quantitative approach. It was in the late 70's at a conference
where a speaker was introduced as "The only speaker at this conference
whose presentation is firmly grounded in fuzzy logic." Needless to say,
the audience had no idea. ...Rick]
-- Benjamin Compton DWS -- A Novell Platinum Partner "The GroupWise Integration Specialists" E-mail: bcompton@emailsolutions.com Web: http://www.emailsolutions.com/bcomptonLearning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>