| 0 | #0 , #14 |
| From August 1962 till the end of December1963 I studied at the University of Chicago's Graduate Library School. MA '71. | |
| 1.1 | #1 |
| Back | This reference has been added to Zine #1 in 2001, while working on Zine #8. See under 8. |
| 1.2 | #1 |
| Quantum Theory, also quantum mechanics, has enhanced the understanding of the structure of matter and provided a theoretical basis for the understanding of atomic structure. | |
| 1.3 | #1 |
| Albert Einstein, Relativity: The Special and General Theory
(1916). Chapter 3: (speaking about 'position' and 'space') "I am standing at the window of a train carriage which moves with constant speed, and drop a stone on the track without giving it speed. Then I see (not considering the influence of the resistance of the air) the stone dropping down in a straight line. A pedestrian, beholding the same evil deed from the footpath, sees the stone dropping to the ground in a parabolic curve." (my translation) |
|
| 4.1 | #4 |
| Back | George Santayana, The Life of Reason (1906). Ed. 1998, book I, chapter 10, p.82. |
| 4.2 | #4 |
| George Santayana (1863-1952, philosopher and poet) said about consciousness: 'By nature's kindly disposition most questions which it is beyond a man's power to answer do not occur to him at all'. | |
| 5.1 | #8 , #22 |
| Information from the database of
the Deutschen Astrologen-Verband To the index of names |
|
| 5.2 | #2 , #5 , #8 , #12 , #15 , #18 , #25 , #32 |
| Jan Kampherbeek, Cirkels (ca. 1960). To the register of names |
|
| 5.3 | #12 , #15 , #18 |
| Back | Information from the American-Swiss database Astro-Databank. To the index of names |
| 5.4 | #18 |
| Information from the program Horoscope 2000 of the Ecole Nouvelle
d'Astrologie, 1997. To the index of names |
|
| 5.5 | #32 |
| Information from the French database Astrothème. To the register of names |
|
| 6.1 | #6 |
| Albert Einstein, Relativity: The Special and General Theory
(1916). Chapter 17. |
|
| 6.2 | #6 |
| Robert M. Pirsig, Lila; An inquiry into morals (1991). | |
| 6.3 | #6 |
| Gregory Bateson, Mind and Nature (1979). Chapter 4, criterium 2. |
|
| 6.4 | #6 |
| J.P. Bahlmann and B.A.C. Meesters. De organisatie die nooit bestond
(1998). p. 70. |
|
| 6.5 | #6 |
| Back | J.P. Bahlmann and B.A.C. Meesters. De organisatie die nooit bestond
(1998). "A living system (organism) is capable of maintaining a dynamic equilibrium (homeostasis), by establishing structural connections. Information, energy or matter hereby moves around in a series of elements in causal connection. Each element thus has an effect on the following and the last element switches back to the first link". (my translation) |
| 6.6 | #6 |
| Other cases of the way in which information moves or is processed inside the system are, for example: the training of muscles, or learning to speak. | |
| 6.7 | #6 |
| Gregory Bateson, Angels fear, towards an epitomology of the sacred
(1987). Chapter 10. "(Consciousness is) a special case of transfer of information within the human individual", and "it also has to do with a shift in logical order, because consciousness means that you know that you know". (my translation) |
|
| 6.8 | #6 |
| My tentative definition of consciousness: 'Paying attention to the self as
a subject and using that as a basis in the handling of oneself and the environment as
objects'. See also the revised definition and my remarks on duality and on the development of consciousness as a process. |
|
| 8 | #8 , #1 |
| Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology
(1929). The philosophy of Whitehead (1861 - 1947, mathematician, logician and philosopher) departed from traditional philosophy by conceiving of individual entities as series of experience instead of as masses of static substance. He considered relativity to be descriptive of sub-atomic particles, social groups, as well as planetary systems. |
|
| 9.1 | #9 |
| Back | Different systems of co-ordinates have matching ways of experiencing time
and different speeds of light. This is what the term 'space-time' indicates. It appears
that space and time are not independent of each other, as time affects space incessantly.
We can check this, for example, by observing a piece of granite (or a teacup or a lump of
sugar) with an electron microscope: at the lowest level of visibility we can see movement. The term 'space-time-continuum' is used to emphasise that there are no interruptions. At two successive moments differences are not noticeable while, at extreme periods of time, differences are apparent. Speaking about a particular spatial object (a boulder, a teacup, a toddler, a biscuit), we really mean a period of time, from one point of interruption to another, from a starting point to an end when the thing has lost that particular character, or up till now. An end, for example, would be: when the block of granite has fallen apart, when a particular purpose like lying there and being a big piece of granite is abolished, when a toddler has become a school child, et cetera. |
| 9.2 | #9 |
| The pictures on the right are coloured screendumps from the program 'Terminator' (Terminat.exe) by Trillium, c. 1987. | |
| 10 | #10 , #14 |
| Back | Louise M. Boerlage, Kinderboeken lezen en kiezen.
(1946). Ms Boerlage's method was used as a manual during my professional training as a children's librarian. I learned to analyse all aspects of a book, including the unspoken ideas in the story. The review should of course be objective. To ensure that, it was considered necessary to pay special attention to your own subjective reactions as critic. This attitude and experience came in very handy during my quest. |
| 12 | #12 |
| In a recent study of the data of the census in France the dispersion of
the planets in the signs is analysed on the basis of the day of birth. The time of birth
has not been included in the study. Didier Castille, Population and Zodiac Rhythms. Les cahiers du RAMS. Paris 1999. |
|
| 15 | #15 |
| The idea that the birth could have taken place at a later time has been suggested to me by Dirk Wiggerink. | |
| 16.1 | #16 |
| Back | There cannot exist two identical individuals by reason of the fact that
two individuals cannot occupy the same location at the same time. This was a basic
assumption of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716, philosopher, politician and
mathematician) put down in his Principle of Indiscernability. He reasoned that if such a
thing would be the case it would concern the same individual. He emphasised that - if something has individuality or singularity it has at its disposal unique co-ordinates of place and time, - a set of co-ordinates of place and time renders only one event which with that is unique. A. N. Whitehead, conversant with both the theory of relativity and the Quantum Theory, based his 'philosphy of organism' on the individual character of a system of co-ordinates and described the inner and mutual relations of once-only events (actual entities, actual events, actual occasions) as a process. With regard to the uniqueness of a system of co-ordinates of place and time he, Albert Einstein and Leibniz were of one mind. See also under 8. |
| 16.2 | #16 , #29 |
| Back | Antonio R. Damasio, Descartes' Error - Emotion, Reason and the Human
Brain (1994). Antonio R. Damasio, The Feeling of What Happens - Body and Emotions in the Making of Consciousness (1999). The neuroscientist argues that "Nature appears to have built the apparatus of rationality not just on top of the apparatus of biological regulation, but also from it and with it" (p.128 of Descartes' Error) and places subjectivity throughout the body as well. |
| 16.3 | #16 |
| Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology
(1929). p.341 'In our cosmological construction we are, therefore, left with the final opposites, joy and sorrow, good and evil, disjunction and conjunction - that is to say, the many in one -, flux and permanence, greatness and triviality, freedom and necessity, God and the World. In this list, the pairs of opposites are in experience with a certain ultimate directness of intuition, except in the case of the last pair. God and the World introduce the note of interpretation'. With the last remark, in my opinion, he indicates that both the last notions belong to a different level than the other pairs. |
|
| 16.4 | #16 |
| Back | From 1942 untill 2038 the planets Pluto and Neptune form,
with a short intermission, an outgoing sextile aspect. Pluto stands for the large
scale development of transformation, via forms of automatism. Neptune stands for the,
likewise large scale, development of personal freedom in unity with others, via forms of
vagueness, e.g. adaptation. Pluto actively supports Neptune in this type of aspect. Started in the signs (colours or filters) Leo and Virgo, the combination moves in the course of time gradually to the signs Aquarius and Taurus. The interpretation of the relation between the two planets remains the same, the interpretation of the planets in the signs as functions of course changes gradually. The Pluto-Neptune cycle started in May 1892 with a conjunction in the 7th degree of Gemini. |
| 16.5 | #16 |
| My revised definition of consciousness runs: 'Being able to
convert the fear of existential loneliness as a once-only individual into paying
subjective attention both to forgotten experiences as to one's dependency on the
environment, and use both as a basis for the development of the personal objective in the
environment'. See also the tentative definition and my remarks on duality and on the development of consciousness as a process. |
|
| 18 | #18 |
| Back | Within the one hundred year period of the outgoing sextile aspect between Pluto and Neptune (see above: 16.4) there is a period in which these two planets are preceded by Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter, in this sequence. The fastest of these planets, so to say, leads the other four planets. These, in their own manner, support the ambition of the first one. It has begun in May 2000. In March 2003 they were located successively in the signs of Sagittarius (Pluto), Aquarius, Aquarius, Gemini and Leo (Jupiter). |
| 19.1 | #19 |
| A similar train of thought is being used by physicists when stating that the universe exists of systems which must have parts. | |
| 19.2 | #19 |
| A unification theory should join the extremes. For example, supersymmetric
string theories, or the M-theory, state that elementary particles consist of a network of
entities which are extended and fluctuating. These entities are mutually connected and
would also connect the extremes with a differently dimensioned world. According to
physicists, duality means taking at the same time both sides into account, both large and
small, electric and magnetic, surface and volume, coordinates and wavefunctions, space and
time. Duality is a quantum symmetry (equivalence) and at the same time it is a general
relativistic effect as it includes gravity and the speed of light. A.N. Whitehead discusses actual occasions, which have elementary particles as a result. Actual occasions, which happen in the 'extensive continuüm' and also constitute the 'extensive continuüm', have as a consequence the total phenomenality as we experience it in our world. Other points of view: Euan Squires, Conscious Mind in the Physical World (1990), Roland Omnès, The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (1994), Roger Penrose, The Large, the Small and the Human Mind (1997), Stephen Hawking, miscellaneous publications in pleasant commercial get-up, Christoff Schiller, Motion Mountain (1997-2007), a 'simple, up-to-date, vivid and courageous' online introduction of physics. |
|
| 19.3 | #19 |
| Back | Einstein made a similar remark earlier, as I remember having read somewhere. |
| 20.1 | #20 |
| The head librarian was Rie van de Kerkhof, later Mrs R. de Bruyn - van de Kerkhof. | |
| 20.2 | #20 |
| My experience of Jean-Paul Sartre began with seeing his 'Huis clos' (1944) and reading 'La nausée' (1938). Only recently was it possible to read 'L'être et le néant' (1943), in translation 'Het zijn en het niet' (2003). Needless to say that his thinking - and that of Husserl, Hegel and Heidegger out of which his thinking had developed - is based exactly on the use of this sentence structure. However, A.N. Whitehead repudiates the subject-predicate form of expression (a philosophic dogma that reverts to Aristoteles' notion of substance), used in expressions like 'Socrates is mortal' (see above: 1.1 en 16.3, p.264) or 'The grass is green', because it hides complex and diverse meanings. He argues that 'these and other prevalent habits of thought, (...) are repudiated, in so far as concerns their influence on philosophy' and, more specific 'so far as concerns the presupposition that this form is a direct embodiment of the most ultimate characterization of fact'. In this manner is 'morphological description replaced by description of dynamic process'. He explains how an expression as 'this stone is grey', thanks to Descartes' famous discovery of the 'subjectivist bias', can be converted into 'my perception of this stone as grey'. | |
| 20.3 | #20 |
| Back | I have found help with this in a book which held up a mirror to me: Thorwald Dethlefsen and Rüdiger Dahlke, Krankheit als Weg (1983). |
| 21.0 | #21 |
| The internet offers ways to obtain a suitable birth chart. The data you
need to have are the date and the place of birth, and the exact time of birth. In case you
want to have your birth chart made I can suggest the folllowing sites: AstroDienst is a Swiss site, in English or some seven other languages, where you enter the required birth information and subsequently download your free chart and some explanatory texts; Astrological Databank; AFAN organisation; Astrology-organisation (UK); Geocosmic organization. Here you will find information about the specialities of their members and useful links. In some countries the birth time may be rounded off on the half hour by the civil servant on duty, unless the person giving notice of the birth produces a exact time. Because the system of coordinates can differ significantly over a brief space of time, in case of doubt a correction may be necessary. With the help of the patterns and the aspects of functions with the Ascendant the chart can be checked. The condition, also for using a chart as a description of a process, is that a system with equal divisions is used. At the AstroDienst site you can choose for the 'equal house system' (see 'extended chart selection'), enter your birth data, discover your Ascendant (the point on the zodiak that was rising at the moment of birth) and where the other functions were situated there and then. |
|
| 21.1 | #21 |
| The description of the singularity principle is based on A.N. Whitehead's
ideas. See also 19.2 for his interpretation of QM. If my wording is incorrect then my interpretation is to be blamed. |
|
| 21.2 | #21 |
| Back | We did know already that human and thing realize themselves - that is to
say: their goal - in a world. All processes are in a situation of duality (defined by
scientists as two extremes which at the same time form an indivisable whole). Please note
that I do not mean the mind-body duality of philosophers and
psychologists which, thanks to among other things neurological research, has been proved
to be an incorrect idea, but the inner-outer world duality of
an existence (that internally is experienced as) being in utmost contrast with the world
and at the samen time (internally is experienced as) forming an indivisable whole with the
world. Jean-Paul Sartre denies (in 1943) this interpretation of individuality. That should not surprise us because he still used the starting point of body-mind duality: '... as people have found it profitable in Einstein's physics to speak of an event which is seen as provided with spatial dimensions and with one temporal dimension and which determines her place in a timespace; ... that it remains preferable to retain the old duality "consciousness-being", in spite of all that'. 'L'être et le néant: Essai d'ontologie phénoménologique'. See above: 20.2. |
| 21.3 | #21 |
| The concept consciousness - as used in this context - suggests either a
stage or a result. I think it is better to speak of growing consciousness instead. Growing
consciousness is a learning process and, like every process, the result, reaching the goal
of the process: consciousness, does not belong to the process proper. The development of
consciousness is among others related with self governing, wisdom and freedom, and the
process uses diverse other learning processes to achieve its goal. The word consciousness
is most often used to indicate a point or a stage in the development of consciousness. See also my tentative and revised definitions of consciousness. |
|
| 21.4 | #21 |
| If one would like to read more about this subject I would recommend the novel by J.M. Coetzee, 'Disgrace' (1999). | |
| 22.1 | #22 |
| Back | The choice of a little known philosopher from an ample supply of better known and equally interesting people is a personal one as Santayana gave me a motive to use my own stories in my quest. See the quotation on remembering above the text in ZZZine #4 and the notes (4.1 and 4.2) above. |
| 22.2 | #22 |
| cited from the foreword by Daniel Cory to 'The Life of Reason'. | |
| 23.1 | #23 |
| This is a description of a causal chain or the cause-effect mechanism that, as far as I know, is based on a direct relation between a distinct number of factors. It implies a creative power or a purely physical starting point after which, presumably, a 'Big Bang' has happened. When it comes to the question of (joint) responsibility then it depends less on human beings than on an almighty God or an as yet incomplete human knowledge of the workings of nature. | |
| 23.2 | #23 |
| This is a description of a mechanism of agreement >> cooperation >> result that is based on the purposeful involvement of everything in the world. It demands rather an ordering principle than dependency of a creative power or insight into the physics of the world. It asserts individual responsibility. The entanglement of everything makes every process a responsible participant in the development and offers human beings an opening towards personal values and essential freedom. | |
| 24 | #24 |
| Text found in the German magazine 'BRIGITTE', number 9/2005, which quotes from Jürgen Neffe's Einstein: Eine Biographie. My translation. | |
| 24.0 | #24 |
| Back | Both took their final exams in 1900, Mileva failed. 1903 marriage, 1914 Mileva leaves, 1919 divorce. In letters to Mileva Albert writes about 'our research' and 'our work'. Albert made the full amount of the Nobel prize over to Mileva. |
| 24.a | to the revised page: #24 , the page before revision: #24 |
| Immediately after finishing this text I received the information that
Albert Einstein had been austistic, in its mild Asperger's form; his second son is said to
have been schizophrenic. This demanded some specification of the text because, in such a condition of inability to empathize, deliberate negative treatment of people is out of the question. Mark Haddon's book 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' (Jonathan Cape. Whitbread Prize 2003) clarified such behaviour from the inside. It should be noted that the Moon and Venus are relatively separated from the other instruments in the network of connections. This could be of importance for the study of autism but does not fall within this discussion of two axes. |
|
| 24.1 | #24 |
| Imre Kertész, A számüzött nyelv (2005). Nobel prize for literature 2002. p192. In the essay with the title 'The banished language' he tells of how in his youth he experienced language as bearer of lies. He writes: 'In the totalitarian dictatorships of the twentieth century something happens with humankind that in its history so far is without precedent, namely: the totalitarian language, or as Orwell calls it, the Newspeak, irretrievebly penetrates the consciousness of the individual person with the help of well dosed dynamics of violence and fear and shutting him out of it slowly; thus he no longer has admission to his own inner life. He identifies more and more with his assigned or imposed role, whether it fits him or not. Besides, full acceptance of that role, that function, is his only chance of survival. But in this manner his personality is also being destroyed, and when he really succeeds in surviving, it will probably take a long time before he will be able - if he ever shall - to reconquer the trustworthy, personal language in which he can relate his tragedy.' Kertész' book shocked me deeply in the resemblance between his and my problems. When I read these lines I could not prevent myself from replacing 'him' and 'he' with 'her' and 'she'; it is exactly that recollection, how I grew up as a girl in a man's world and had to and still must function therein. It has given me a more profound insight in the problem of the male-female reationship but, more important still, opened a new perspective with a wider and clearer view of language as a means of communication and its role in the development of inner consciousness. |
|
| 26 | #26 |
| Back | In J.P. Bahlmann and B.A.C. Meesters, De organisatie die nooit bestond (1998), in chapter 4, par. 2, p. 71, an illustration is given of self-reference. They cite an example from the biologists Maturana and Varela: "When a cell assimilates a molecule, the consequences of that interaction are not determined by the chemical properties of the molecule, but by the manner in which the cell 'judges' and 'evaluates' these properties. In my opinion processes indeed determine what they want from their environment but that is true for both processes, also in this case." |
| 26.1 | #26 |
| An endeavour to come to a description, undertaken by A. N. Whitehead and Bertrand Russell in their 'Principia Mathematica' (1910-1913), gave rise to this question. More about this in Douglas R. Hofstadter's 'Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (1979), and in Euan Squires' Conscious Mind in the Physical World (1990). | |
| 26.x | #26x |
| Aristoteles' categories in Bernard Delfgaauw, Beknopte geschiedenis
der wijsbegeerte (1965), and in Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy
and its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the
Present Day (1946). p. 222 and p.191. Immanuel Kant's categories in his Critique of Pure Reason (1963). p.168, and in Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy and its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (1946), p.734. Immanuel Kant's judgements in his Critique of Pure Reason. Alfred North Whitehead's categories in his Process and Reality (1929). p.341. Robert M. Pirsig's aspects of Quality in his Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; An Inquiry into Values (1974). p.186. |
|
| 26.x1 | #26x |
| Back | Harmony is, looked at theoretically, a rather elusive element. This
applies both to the balance of colours as to the concord in music (to say nothing of
life). Neither exact complementary colours nor the electronically generated exact
distances between tones, like the doubling of a frequency in order to generate the octave,
are experienced as harmonious or beautiful. Apparently, a for us satisfactory harmony can
only develop when the combinations are being pulled askew in some degree. Perhaps harmony is connected with the impossibility of reaching certain limits? As every process cannot but search for harmony in its given possibilities and the world also is still busy at it, it is logical that the best theory of harmony and the brightest chromatics cannot reach a generally valid resolution for harmony. Let's go on with the play. |
| 27.0 | #27 |
| According to both the Larousse Encyclopedia and Wikipedia "play, also
amongst animals, does not strive for an immediate goal. Functionally play is very
important for the development of the body (acquire methods, skills or manipulation of
objects) and for the development of social and sexual life. Play comprises diverse sorts
of competitions, acting and popular games, child's and animal's play, playing an
instrument, ways of action. It is practiced by both children and adults. One psychological
theory states that play is a way to satisfy a physical need for relaxation and motion.
Another theory claims that play in essence is an unconscious catharsis, working off
primitive behaviour and an endeavour to adapt to the not immediately digestable complexity
of life. Some kinds of play do have clearly defined goals, and when they are
structured by using rules we call them games. 'Game theory' is engaged with strategies in behaviour. It has its origin in a mathematic economic theory with the help of which also military and management strategies have been defined. At the moment it also branches off in the (evolution) biology, artificial intelligence, cybernetics and politics." See also note 30.4. The social historian Johan Huizinga in Homo Ludens; a study of the play-element in culture (transl. 1955), extensively enters into the art- and language aspects of play in history. He decides that he cannot include the psychological aspects in his discussion because psychology refrains from interpretation. Eric Berne describes in The Structure and Dynamics of Organizations and Groups (1963), the transactional analysis, Paul Watzlawic a.o. deal in Pragmatics of Human Communications (1967) and in Change (1973) with group theory. References to a general psychological framework are lacking. |
|
| 27.1 | #27 |
| Back | Boris Cyrulnik, Resilience - About conquering youth traumas (2002). In this book Cyrulnik states that expressing and sharing of traumatic experiences in one creative form or another, for example by acting out, helps redress the resilience of people. It prevents a 'second blow'. His hypothesis about resilience says that a certain person is needed to start that process, to revive the desire to restore the relation with the world, to find a solution. It is not the child or the individual who is resilient, but his development and historiography within a certain culture. Cyrulnik develops a tool based on the notion of resilience, but he cannot offer the concept a place in a psychological framework. |
| 27.2 | #27 |
| When I compare the system that I encounter in the process with the classification systems with which I as a librarian once had to work, all of which used the decimal notation developed by John Dewey, then their flatness strikes me. This two-dimensionality of the classification systems is also probably their problem which grows in time. Man's thinking is clearly as far from flat as our brains are, and can as it were thicken itself locally. | |
| 27.3 | #27 |
| Michel Foucault, The Order of Things (transl. 2007). p391-392. | |
| 28.1 | #28 |
| Stephen Greenblatt, Will in the World. How Shakespeare became Shakespeare (2004). An interesting biography written by a recognized scholar, from the historical context he evokes a lively image of a human being with an enormous power of observation and a wide as well as deep knowledge of people. Germaine Greer in Shakespeare's wife (2007) fills up the lacune in the historic background, she creates a picture with realistic information on social and family life at that time. | |
| 29 | #29 |
| Louis-Victor de Broglie proved in 1924 that not only light consists of particles and has a wave character, but that quantons, quantum particles which consist of matter, also possess the same wave properties. For a long time there had existed a difference of opinion on this subject. Epicurus (341-271 BC) held the opinion that light consisted of small particles, the physicist Max K.E.L. Planck (1858-1947) described in 1900 radiation as discrete quantities of matter which he called 'quanta', and in 1911-1912 Henri Poincaré (1854-1912) proved that light requires the existence of (a stream of discernable elementary particles) photons. Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) around 1678 had suggested that light should be some kind of wave, and James Clerk Maxwell demonstrated in 1864 that it is a type of electromagnetic wave. | |
| 29.0 | #29 |
| Back | The Dutch wikipedia says: 'De context is de achtergrond of referentie van
elke uitdrukking of idee of gebeurtenis in welke die was uitgedrukt, in relatie tot welke
het een bepaalde betekenis verkrijgt'. The German wikipedia says (shortened): 'Als Kontext (lateinisch con-textus »Zusammenhang«, Plural: "Kontexte") wird ein Zusammenhang oder Umfeld beispielsweise eines Wortes oder einer Handlung bezeichnet (contexo = zusammenweben, contextus = verflochten, fortlaufend. Textur, auf deutsch "das Gewebe")'. |
| 29.1 | #29 |
| Process and Reality (1929), p.91: "But the society is only efficient through its individual members. Thus in a society, the members can only exist by reason of the laws which dominate the society, and the laws only come into being by reason of the analogous characters of the members of the society. But there is not any perfect attainment of an ideal order whereby the indefinite endurance of a society is secured. A society arises from disorder, where 'disorder' is defined by reference to the ideal for that society." | |
| 29.2 | #29 |
| Ludwig von Bertalanffy introduced in 1940 the general systemstheory and Norbert Wiener in the same year cybernetics, Edward Lorenz observed in 1963 disorderly behaviour in a system, T.Y. Li and J. Yorke in 1975 laid the basis for the chaos theory, Ilya Prigogine received in 1977 the Nobel price in chemistry for the discovery of dissipative systems and self organisation. | |
| 29.3 | #29 |
| Ilya Prigogine, Autobiography (1977) with bibliography, Nobel Lecture (1977), The Rediscovery of Time lecture (1983), and in co-operation with Isabelle Stengers, Order Out of Chaos (1984) about non-linear systems. | |
| 29.4 | #29 |
| Process and Reality (1929), p.72. | |
| 29.5 | #29 |
| Back | A cell, which is a compound process, contains in its nucleus a series of
chromosomes, the sum of all genes. Together the genes form the genome or DNA, which in its
double helix structure contains information about the substance (human, gender,
hair-colour, etc) and about its general properties, the combination of indiscriminate
potentialities. Supposedly there are less than 30.000 genes in the genoom. The DNA with
the genetic codes of the organism, developed after the impregnation of an egg cell, is in
principle determined for life. During lifetime it cannot change or be changed essentially.
Due to frequent transference however the code can 'degenerate' over time. Recent research shows the presence of genes with 'switches' in the human genome. So called epigenetic effects develop because the switch of a gene can be on or off. This property, as yet found only in humans, allows for fast genetic adjustment to circumstances. Recording of epigenetical information (information which can be carried over on the next generation) is possible during the for women and men different periods in which the ovaries respectively the sperm is being formed in layout. The sensitivity for both environmental and inner circumstances (toxic material, stress, eating habits, etc.) is for feminine births greatest during the last months of pregnancy of the grandmother, for males births this is the case during puberty of the father. When transplanting organs the DNA is transferred together with the already developed qualities. New owners relate of new desires and corresponding behaviour since they have got implanted major donor organs (a woman who since she had received a hart-lung inplant felt an urge to visit bars and drink beer and felt a strange interest in male dominated sports). Stem cells are cells which have no specific function as yet. In principle they are capable of taking on any function. It is not known to me but I expect their nucleus to contain the DNA of their source. If so this could indicate the transmission of general property and specific function via separate paths. |
| 29.6 | #29 |
| Ilya Prigogine's chaos theory: a system is chaotic or instable, it fluctuates. When we use inner time and partitions we lose the local viewpoint of classic mechanics. Instability leads to a viewpoint that is no longer related to its actual place but to the system itself. The intrinsic internal time is essentially different from our usual parameter time, which we read from our watch, an astronomic auxiliary. | |
| 30 | #30 |
| Back | Susan Pinker, The sexual paradox. Men, Women, and the Real Gender Gap, 2008. Gives a nuanced survey of sexual differences and offers a broad picture of the human areas they cover. |
| 30.1 | #30 |
| Baruch de Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-politico, chapter 14. He adds then: "the first purpose of politics is truth". | |
| 30.2 | #30 |
| Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics, amplified edition 2005. He explains the philosophical theories which have been developed since the discoveries of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity, and clarifies similarities with ancient pre-monotheistic philosophies (not based on anthropomorphic notions about God). The notion conscience has for me, also hereby, taken definite shape: the organic entirety (the whole of unities of space, time and motion) that encompasses the total body of collective consciousness, spirit of the time, history and expectations. | |
| 30.3 | #30 |
| The people of Switzerland have recently, after many a referendum before, at last approved voting rights for women. | |
| 30.4 | #30 #31 |
| Back |
In Game Theory, the frame wherein strategic interaction between 'players'
is studied, most research is presently done in the area of non-cooperative game theory,
the interactions in which no stringent arrangements can be made between participants.
Recently it is being called 'behavioral economics'. The theory has been developed during WW II by Oscar Morgenstern and John von Neumann. Together they wrote Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour, 1944. The originally mathematical theory of probabilities in social processes has been extended to other fields like biology, psychology, political science, marketing, military science, et cetera. J. F. Nash discusses in Non-cooperative games, 1950, the 'equilibrium problem'. Morton D. Davis gives in his Game Theory. A Nontechnical Introduction, 1970 (unaltered reprints), a non-mathematical explanation. See also the note 27.0 about play. Some additional viewpoints: In his article The Tragedy of the Commons, Science,162 (1968) Garrett Hardin describes a type of social pitfall which unfolds out of a, usually economic, conflict between individual interest and the common interest, for instance over finite resources. He states that free access to and unlimited demand for such resources leads to their being structurally doomed to ultimately perish by exploitation. Clarifying information about methods to influence behaviour are offered by N. J. Goldstein, S. J. Martin and Robert B. Cialdini in Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion, 2007. They warn against abuses in marketing, psychology, media, et cetera. |
| 30.5 | #30 |
| Walter Lippmann, The Public Philosophy, 1954. He identified grave problems and predicted further decay and the breakdown of the second level, of the civilisation of the man who has been taught to control himself. He saw in the end no other possibility than to continue to hold on to the natural law, complemented by christian morality. | |
| 30.6 | #30 |
| Simon Schama, The American Future, 2008. Part I, The Jefferson-Hamilton dispute, about the role of the military. | |
| 31 | #31 |
| In One Dimensional Man; Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial
Society, 1964, Herbert Marcuse gives a disconcerting picture of the present society.
Marcuse belonged to the Frankfurter Schule, which before the Second World War already
developed the critical theory. They pointed out the dangers of dehumanisation and
social desintegration owing to the self-destructive technological developments. The values
and ends of the 'unidimensional man' are directed at acceptation of the norms of the
totalitarian and repressive system, he adjusts his thinking to the established thinking
(e.g. everyone appreciates it as beautiful so it is beautiful). As Positive Reason
encapsulates every minor reform and strengthens itself with it Marcuse believes that the
chance for gradual improvement is not realistic. His thinking reverts, via Hegel's
historical dialectics, to Socrates' dialogue. Besides this structure thinking we find in
Marcuse also traces of Whitehead's process thinking. After Marcuse the negative
dialectics have been developed further, among others, by Jürgen Habermas. In De rivier van Herakleitos; een eigenzinnige visie op de wijsbegeerte (The River of Herakleitos; a Self-willed Outlook on Philosophy), 2008, Etienne Vermeersch and Johan Braeckman present a clear image of present thought and its development. They also explain the present-day positivistic society, 'the STC-order', (Scientific, Technologic, Capitalist) and point out the philosophical and moral problems we encounter these days. In his recently published book, Het morele instinct (The Moral Instinct). 2008, in which the starting point of philosopher Jan Verplaetse is the 'multiple morals approach', he differentiates between moral systems available to men. The book is partly based on findings collected by him and by others, partly on statistical interpretations and surveys from behaviour economics, the former Game Theory. Some parts are accompanied by - naturally quite recent - information on the brain regions involved. The chapter on 'purification moral' stands out as orderly but rather superficial, perhaps while the psychological backgrounds and coherence are insufficiently known. I miss a 'dedication moral', next to the 'bonding moral' but without bond, and the term 'defence moral'. The 'principles or ideals morals' refer more to collections, if the other groups should be seen as systems. |
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| 32.1 | #32 |
| Mesmerise was in the 19th century the word commonly used for hypnotise. Sigmund Freud studied in Paris Franz Anton Mesmer's techniques. | |
| 32.2 | #32 |
| From my experience in the Netherlands I know that after 1945 little consideration has been given to the historically and mentally important problem of the demagogue; it has remained all but undigested here and, in consequence, the phenomena Hitler, dictatorship and steered mass-behaviour are still sore points. For people who want to look at the past, at the history of propaganda and economic advertising, to general human vulnerability, I refer to this information at the internet: www.thewave.tk. | |
| 32.3 | #32 |
| In Das Ressentiment in der Moral (1912) the phenomenological
philosopher Max Scheler describes the phenomenon resentment. I give a summary and an
actualisation: A. resentment is rooted in grudge, hatred and virulence which end in 'self-poisoning of the soul', by a thirst for revenge which one could not discharge, B. the blame for set-backs and sufferings is not being investigated but put with others, C. the person justifies himself, refuses to take any responsibility himself for his experiences (his own life), D. 'I am victim', the guilty party(s) owe(s) reparation, E. one attracts another who is so kind as to take up one's responsibility, who is ready to accept to feel guilty about one's misery, F. in the end there is always 'inversion = revaluation': enjoying the little things in life is no longer possible; the 'resentment-person' lives by hatred and envy against the 'rich' life, the history and the values have been perverted and there has developed moral poverty, G. its history begins, says Scheler, with modern thought. The Enlightenment, the social(istic) movements and the French Revolution were outbreaks of resentment, were statements which, witness the developments that followed, have not led to a convincing solution. Especially on this point he differed in opinion with Nietzsche. In my opinion resentment can develop itself in every field of life where strong desire plays a dominant role, for instance from the thirst for or addiction to fame, power, money, success, pleasure, sex, drugs, sensation, violence, love, attention, trading, science, profession, virtuosity, skill, status, freedom, bigger, faster, more. When this really agrees with given limitations of the process, when the possibilities for expression of emotions, when correction and objectification are impossible, the rejection of the own moral responsibility for interpretations and actions becomes obvious. This aspect of the history of Western culture and civilisation certainly deserves more attention. |
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