Thinking Through Infinity with Projective Geometry

Thinking Through Infinity with Projective Geometry

Quita Brodhead. Whence and Where To. 2000. Oil on canvas. 36-1/4 x 48 inches. Courtesy of Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, and the Estate of Quita Brodhead I'd like to offer something from the realm of projective geometry, with respect to infinity, that is (believe it or not) very practical.  I have found that projective geometry...

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Toward an Aesthetic Epistemology – Slideshow Overview

Toward an Aesthetic Epistemology – Slideshow Overview

In February 2014 I successfully defended my PhD dissertation, titled "Toward an Aesthetic Epistemology: Transforming Thinking through Cybernetic Epistemology and Anthroposophy." The following is the abstract and a slideshow presentation that pulls out the crux of my arguments. Abstract The complexity, subtlety, interlinking, and scale of many problems faced individually and collectively in today’s rapidly changing world...

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Embracing the paradox of Being: A relational view of epistemology, ontology, logic and difference.

Embracing the paradox of Being: A relational view of epistemology, ontology, logic and difference.

Let’s get right to it, shall we? With respect to ontology, let us say that there is no “it,” no independent reality that is exclusive of the observer.  This is a basic insight from second-order cybernetics: the observer must always be included in the observed.  Despite this, of course, we do have much talk and...

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First and Second-Order Epistemologies

First and Second-Order Epistemologies

Gregory Bateson (1991) famously said that we “cannot claim to have no epistemology. Those who so claim have nothing but a bad epistemology” (p. 178).  Bateson is calling for self-reflection in our epistemology.  He wants it to be recursive, so that in our production of knowledge we do not delude ourselves into thinking that...

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Observing the Observer: Exploring a Cybernetic Epistemological Recursion

Observing the Observer: Exploring a Cybernetic Epistemological Recursion

All epistemologies are observer-dependent; i.e. there is no single epistemology that applies to all possible observers, because every observer is unique in some way.  The necessary inclusion of the observer in any description of the world is a deeply obvious and yet profound principle.  It was neatly expressed in Heinz von Foerster’s article Cybernetics...

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Sleep, Dreams and Video Games

Sleep, Dreams and Video Games

How you use your attention in waking life has definite effects in your dreaming life.  The following is my distillation of some insights from anthroposophy in this regard, which I offer as one way of looking at this phenomenon, specifically around the issue of video games and dreaming.  This post should provide an appropriate...

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Patterns in Process: Transdisciplinarity as a Background for Working with the Elemental Cycle of Transformation

Patterns in Process: Transdisciplinarity as a Background for Working with the Elemental Cycle of Transformation

Abstract This essay outlines connections between the Elemental Cycle as an archetype of transformation, transdisciplinarity, and  cybernetics.  A number of questions are addressed: the nature and importance of connecting these fields, an examination of resources and the dominant disciplinary discourses for the associated fields, and a critical examination of my assumptions, beliefs, and position. Introduction How often...

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Form and content – two levels of change

Form and content – two levels of change

Form and Content Understanding change is a very difficult task. No aspect of our world, either experienced outwardly through our senses or inwardly through our feelings and thoughts, seems exempt from the paradoxical rule that the only constant is change. It is possible to examine the way change occurs at many levels. At the “lowest”...

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Quantum Mechanics – To Understand or Not Understand, that is the question

Quantum Mechanics – To Understand or Not Understand, that is the question

Introduction About 100 years ago the birth of quantum theory changed forever how humans perceive the universe… sort of.  Certainly “quantum physics” is a phrase found far outside the boundaries of physics classrooms, and has even achieved a fairly wide popularity through movies such as What the Bleep and works like Fritjof Capra’s Tao of Physics.  Does this...

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Thinking about “What’s for lunch?”

Thinking about “What’s for lunch?”

This question is a touchstone for the modern human dilemma, and it's all about consciousness. I've recently been in some discussions around transitioning to being vegetarian/mostly vegan.  Part of the discussions revolve around the available evidence for the state of affairs with respect to our food production.  Two heavy-hitting potential sources for perspective can be...

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An Esoteric Guide to Spencer Brown’s Laws of Form #6

An Esoteric Guide to Spencer Brown’s Laws of Form #6

(New readers will want to start with the first installment.) We ended the last installment by discussing the esoteric nature of the injunction.  We continue this exploration, and bring this series to a close. LoF p. 81 In the command "let the crossing be to the state indicated by the token" we at once make the token doubly meaningful, first...

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