Hi Robert,
I used the following "hierarchy of integrations" in my article "Creating
Competitive Advantage: Welding Imagination to Experience" (The Academy of
Management Executive, 1989, Vol. III, No.1, pp. 29-36):
Identity
Meaning
Knowledge
Information
Data
Differences
These levels of logical type emerged from a process loosely based on Karl
Popper's "three-world theory" from his later philosophy and used the idea
that, at its base, perception is the perception of differences followed by
the successive integration of these differences (learning) into
hierarchies of stable and hence useful patterns -- "differences that make
a difference" in Gregory Bateson's formulation. At the top of the
hierarchy was the concept of individual identity, the metaphorical 'I',
the perceiver, which emerges as a contrast to everything which appears to
be external to the perceiver. Here I was trying to capture the idea that
knowledge becomes "personal" as suggested by Michael Polanyi -
inextricably bound up with one's identity. So learning or change means a
change in one's identity! I'll mail you a copy of the article.
-- David Hurst Speaker, Consultant and Writer on Management dhurst@1046.aol.com