What, Why & How do we Know ?
The Demystification of Management Systems Science. Seems an apt title. Spookily I just came across this PhD course material presented at Helsinki University of Technology, in a cross-search hit on Pirsig, the day after coming back from a meeting / conference at the HUT in Espoo. An interesting paper by David Hawk at the New … Continue reading “The Demystification of Management Systems Science”
Been reading his “What is Life” (1944) and “Mind and Matter” (1958), together with his own autobiographical sketches. Marvellous stuff. These physicists who first came into contact with quantum physics, were clearly all deeply affected by the strange view of “reality” it presented and how this related to human scale everyday reality. Einstein famously struggled … Continue reading “Erwin Schrödinger”
Informal Education – Been browsing the INFED site since I linked to their Argyris biography earlier. As well as the site’s own collection of educational content, it is dedicated to promoting the idea of informal education & lifelong learning, and other resources on the subject of education and learning. It’s heavily based around a 1997 … Continue reading “Informal Education”
Knowledge Dialogue. Lilia posts, and several other people pick-up on Lilia’s recent post on “Questions Powering Knowledge”. No doubt about that. Just look at the popularity of FAQ’s as a substitute for more planned communication. A question is (generally on the face of it) an indication of someone wanting to know something. As Jack Vinson … Continue reading “Knowledge Dialogue”
A bit of a brain dump after following the new Adler link from Jorn in the previous post. All old ground, but suggesting Pirsig missed aspects of McKeon as the “Chairman” in ZMM. Richard Peter McKeon (1900 – 1985) Columbia – Woodbridge & Dewey AB’20, AM’20, PhD’22, Sorbonne, Columbia’25, Hutchins – Chicago’35, Dean’36-’48, Ideas & … Continue reading “McKeon, Adler and Hutchins”
Jorn is Posting Again. Same e-mail and same links to RobotWisdom. Came across this Mortimer Adler reference in a recent post of his. Jorn’s weblog at Robot Wisdom is still untouched since October 2003. He’s back posting (since Jan 2004 it seems) and on his ontology for human life quest again. An interesting aspect is … Continue reading “Jorn is Posting Again”
In the excitement of receiving the Pirsig materials on my return from a week away over Easter, I forgot how much reading I’d got through. Joyce’s “Ulysses” I finished at last. I can see why it’s such an important work artistically and stylistically, and why it benefits from serious analysis and detective work, but I … Continue reading “Reading – Latest Update”
ZMM for Teaching Lawyers and Pilots. Interesting page from J R Elkins’ West Virginia Univ “Moral Philosophy for Lawyers” course material, with a very positive view of Pirsig’s ZMM.