I have been having difficulty with my e-mail and a file server
changeover, so I may have missed some of the discussion. Neither have I
read Mike's book, yet. But cognition as a system (as described by G.
Bateson) is one of my focus areas, so I would like to add to the
discussion.
Mind is the organized relationships both within a system and to the
outside. It emerges as a person interacts with culture, enviroment,
herself, and tools. Tools are a special case because they are created
and altered by people and their structure influences the people who use
them; they bring recursion into the process of mind. I think that our
species is distinct from others and from artifacts by it's belief in
Self. And perhaps Self is only a belief, so that is a useful
distinction to make. Awareness of self or consciousness can only be
inferred, not observed, and I would say the same about any
relationship. That does not mean that what cannot be seen is
unimportant. I think Bateson's quest for a methodology that analyzes
patterns and patterns of patterns is what I also am striving for as I
develop my qualitative approach(es) to research.
Kathie
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\\\\\\\\\\\\\You live you learn
\\\\\\\\\\\You love you learn
\\\\\\\\\You cry you learn
\\\\\\\You lose you learn
\\\\\You bleed you learn
\\\You scream you learn////////alanis morissette:jagged little pill
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Katherine_Goff who-is-at ceo.cudenver.edu
http://ouray.cudenver.edu/~kegoff/index.html