Subject: Epistemology using Systems Concepts

Posted by Karl North on 10/3/2008
In Reply To:Epistemology using Systems Concepts Posted by Kathy Arizmendi on 10/2/2008

Message:

Here is a tool that might be relevant to this thread. What Senge in The Fifth Dimension calls the Ladder of Inference is a tool he developed to make group discussion and decision making work better. It is a graphic depiction of common ways misunderstanding develops as discussion moves from data to meanings to assumptions to conclusions to beliefs to action. Its first goal is to make participants aware of the interactive thought dynamics in a social group. Then it offers ways to alter the dynamics. It directs participants to:

1. Make your thinking process visible - explain assumptions, make reasoning explicit
2. Publicly test your conclusions and assumptions - encourage others to explore and question them
3. Ask others to make their thinking process visible - keep asking why (Senge's Five Whys procedure)

It does this by suggesting specific ways of talking that alter the dynamics of the discussion as a social systemic phenomenon. So I find it congenial to the ST paradigm. I think it is a tool that accomplishes what I understand to be some of the objectives of Bohm dialogue. I included the Ladder of Inference in a manual designed to help farmers become more ST oriented in their decision making and farm planning. It is a simple tool, but I found it a powerful tool the few times I have convinced a group to use it. I find that, as in teaching ST generally, the hard thing in making the Ladder of Inference work is not grasping the concept, but changing the habits of thought and communication that are implied.

Karl North

Follow Ups:

Epistemology using Systems Concepts - Richard Turnock 10/6/2008 
Epistemology using Systems Concepts - Kathy Arizmendi 10/6/2008
Epistemology using Systems Concepts - Karl North 10/7/2008
Epistemology using Systems Concepts - Ed Johnson 10/7/2008