Dear all,
I find very interesting your remarcs about the different mindsets of Westerners
and Chinese. I, ve been studying our Westerner mindset for decades, and one of
the first aspects that hit me was our self assured assumption that we "know"
the world, that we assume to be the way we describe it. An example> I suppose
most of us has read the American Declaration of Independence>"...we hold these
truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal...and they are
endowed... with inalienable rights...life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness" (I am writing by memory, excuse me any inaccuracy). What surprised
me at the time of my first contact with the text is that most, if not all of
the signants of the Declaration were slave owners: no one found it necessary,
following such solemn words, to free their slaves. No one found it necessary to
change the wording (" all white men are created equal" for instance ) and
nobody, among the millions who applauded
their words, were surprised, or suspicious of the contradiction.
In the French newspaper Le Monde, about 40 years ago, a French teacher talked
about her perplexity when, while teaching Descartes in Burkina Fasso, her
students found Descartes increasingly funny, and when she asked about the
reason of their amusement they answered: "He speaks like the typical white guy:
full of self assurance, knowing the words and using them to carry what he wants
them to carry".
There are many similar examples of our inconsistencies, and this aspect might
very well be related to what you call complexity, or rather, in our case, lack
of it.
Thrilling, isnt it?
A pleasure to be able to talk to you about it, thanks
Carmen
________________________________
De: Michel Bauwens <[email protected]>
Para: p2p-foundation <[email protected]>
CC: Nicolás Mendoza <[email protected]>
Enviado: Domingo 17 de marzo de 2013 21:16
Asunto: [P2P-F] Fwd: Synthesis - Chinese Thinking and Complexity
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Greg Fisher <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 8:40 PM
Subject: Synthesis - Chinese Thinking and Complexity
To: Michel Bauwens <[email protected]>
Dear Michel,
Chinese Thinking and Complexity
"...when I talk about Complexity theory with fellow Westerners who are unaware
of complex systems, I sometimes feel they think me insane because my framing
sits uncomfortably with their view of the world. Equivalently, when I have the
same conversation with Chinese people, they often think me insane because what
I am saying is blindingly obvious."
At a conference I attended last week in Singapore, a question occurred to me
about whether the Chinese mind-set is more conducive to Complexity theory than
the Western mind-set. At the conference, research was presented suggesting
there was a material difference between the two. I discuss this in the
article, concluding that it might well be that the Chinese tend to think more
"complexly" than Westerners.
MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from
"synthesisips.us4.list-manage1.com" claiming to be
http://www.synthesisips.net/blog/chinese-thinking-and-complexity/
Best wishes,
Greg Fisher
Managing Director
Synthesis IPS
Check out our website: www.synthesisips.net
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