Lot of good stuff in your response to my dithyramb about Descartes et al.,
but GoodLord this group is getting big and I can only comment on one point:
> we should not assume that hierarchical notions are "incorrect",
> "erroneous", or even "destructive". It's often said - even by people who
> believe in and drive hierarchical organizations (vide, Jack Welch) - that
> hierarchy is the enemy of participation and self-actualization of people
> within organizations. Maybe. But maybe the issue is not so much the
> structure itself as our unconscious and unstated assumptions about
> hierarchy.
Dead on. There _IS_ hierarchy and structure. When our ideas fall short
of reality, it's usually because we try to see only one hierarchy or
structure where in fact there are dozens or hundreds or gazillions. Every
tiniest fact in our experience or thought plays some role in an
essentially infinite web of hierarchies and structures. The debilitating
impact of newtonian assumptions in areas where they have no proper
business (including especially the topics of interest to us here in
this group) is exactly that they demand we reduce all of this to _ONE_
heirarchy, _ONE_ structure, _ONE_ "course outline".
Regards
jamzen@world.std.com
There are more different kinds of people in the world than there are people...