Re: The Meaning of Holism LO1896

Michael McMaster (Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk)
Fri, 30 Jun 1995 19:52:53 +0000

Replying to LO1853 --

"Vibrations as twaddle" is only the case in some circles. In others,
vibration is the heart of the matter according to the best thinking.
And in still others, its very good (useful) analogy.

In biology (see F. Varela), the way that we are coupled to our
environment is that we generate a great deal of internal stimulation
which looks like oscillations at various points. We received from
external sources a much smaller amount of stimulation which also
looks like oscillations. At the points where these meet, they
modulate into a single resonance or they pass each other. When some
of these meet, they increase in strength and continue to seek matches
until they become powerful signals through a series of such
modulations.

This sounds pretty much like "vibrations" to me.

Now it isn't a very large step from here - at least by analogy - to a
linguistic application. Speaking, at the level of sound waves, etc
is going pretty much along the path just outlined. Language is
likely the socially conditioned coupling of these resonances into
meaning. And meaning, at least by analogy, might usefully be
considered to be matching oscillations at a larger level.

I really like the idea that we are in constant processes of
modulation and tend to pursue the pathways that enhance the signal
which then occurs - or doesn't. I like that we find here a fit
between the detail level biology, the common statements of experience
like "harmony", the more abstract but not new idea of "rapport" and
the larger analogies to many other systems - even to the "twaddle" of
the 60's (which we may call twaddle only because it was pretty
intuitively right but had no decent [Western] language at the time.)

I'm saying all of this because I think it will produce breakthroughs
in our ability to communicate about communication and in our abiliy
to construct processes and activities that will dramatically enhance
communication.

--
Michael McMaster
Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk