Doghouse

What's Beyond Postmodernism? Part Two

Now this was, I think, 1989, which means most of us had no idea how the world was going to be changed by this thing we now refer to as "the web", but ironically it was just that image, the image of a web, that came to mind at the time, just a much simpler image. Instead of the hierarchical and competitive system which Modernity championed, this approach would be horizontal and relational.
An example

Here is a simple example within one discipline, psychology. I was a psychology student in the late 70s and was regularly amazed by how zealous and nearly religious were the wars within the department. Each "school" of psychology was a war for dominance in the department, the Behaviorists trying to understand all aspects of human existence within their own narrow view, and the Humanists and Existentialists doing the same. It was an ideological war with no winners because no one was open to other ways of seeing.

But what if the Modernist model of competition and rational argument had given way to a Post Modern sensibility? What if those professors had laid down their philosophical armaments and started to talk with one another and look for correlations in their work? What if the Behaviorist could have seen his own view as merely one lens among many and valued the Humanist's lens, and the Existentialist's lens? Would they not go deeper with three lenses as opposed to the one? And then what if they had interfaced what they saw through the lenses with other lenses? What if they consulted with the award-winning nutritionist on staff in the biology department, and the social theorist in the sociology department?

I realize that may seem simplistic, but two great sayings by Einstein help here:

"Imagination is more powerful than knowledge," and;

"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."

We'll take the second first. It's simpler that way.

________________

A new model.

posted by Obi-Mac BakDon @ 9:40 AM