Basic Assumptions about People and Human Goals

1.       Levels of Organization
2.       Stages of Development
3.       Choosing Individual and Societal Goals

Basic Assumptions about Communication and Perception

4.       Communication and Language
5.       Perception and Meaning
6.       Facts and Interpretations, Truth and Lies

a)

Humans, like other animal species, organize themselves into social units, from small intimate groups such as the family to large impersonal groups such as a corporation or a country.

b)

Every organization is formed with specific goals in mind – a tribe, a clan, a family, a country, a city, a corporation, or a church.

c)

Any particular society has goals, including keeping participating members sheltered, clothed, fed, and protected.

d)

As people satisfy those basic needs they add other goals to their lives.

e)

These include spirituality, personal growth, education, art, music, sports, games, hobbies, amusement, volunteering, and other types of activities and contributions.

f)

It is difficult to get the individual members of large organizations, such as a country, to agree on the goals of the group.

g)

America’s founding fathers summarized peoples’ goals generally as: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These were such important goals to protect they declared them rights.

h)

Beyond these goals, it’s difficult to get agreement among citizens for specific initiatives.

i)

Politics is the mechanism by which democracies discuss and decide among competing visions and courses of action.

j)

Leaders extrapolate from the basic outlines (the desire for freedom, liberty, security, and other needs and wants) to promote specific policies.

k)

The issue is always whose vision will prevail and how it will be implemented.

a)

Virtually everything in the universe goes though observable, measurable stages of development.

b)

This includes subatomic particles, atoms, molecules, cells, and organisms. It also includes planets, stars, and galaxies.

c)

The observable evidence is overwhelming that, over time, each of these has moved through its own developmental sequence.

d)

In addition, all people, groups, and societies go through stages of development.

e)

Individuals experience growth through different types of developmental sequences, including stages of self (ego) development, cognitive (intellectual) development, moral (values) development, and physical (body) development.

f)

Groups, societies and cultures also go through specific developmental sequences.

a)

Philosophy has long described truth (science), beauty (art), and goodness (morals) as three of the primary domains of human endeavor, interest, and activity. They are components of what is often considered “the good life.”

b)

An individual’s search for, and understanding of, truth, beauty, and goodness is a life-long pursuit.

c)

Each person starts with a relatively simple understanding of truth, beauty, or goodness and moves to more sophisticated conceptualizations of them as we grow and mature.

d)

Parents, family, friends, organizations, and society provide assistance in an individual’s personal development, but each of us is ultimately responsible for our own development.

e)

Individuals arrive at their own beliefs by reasoning them out, using their own experience and their own understanding of basic principles as a foundation.

f)

Socrates said “the unexamined life is not worth living.”

g)

Individuals should continually examine their own lives and question their positions so as to arrive at beliefs that are true to their own experience and to their own basic values.

h)

Since “the only certainty is change,” and the observable evidence makes it clear that people move from one stage to another in an orderly sequence, a primary individual goal should be growth and development along the various paths open to human beings.

a)

The world or human beings is created in language.

b)

All things created by human beings – all ideas and all physical structures in the world – are created in conversations.

c)

The words we use are important.

d)

A simple and useful definition of communication is “shared meaning.”

e)

Successful communication requires that each individual in a conversation comprehend the words and ideas being expressed by the other(s).

f)

The types of conversation we have are important.

g)

People can have action-oriented conversations or reaction-oriented conversations.

h)

Action-oriented conversations are relatively powerful conversations.

i)

Conversations designed to create things in the world are relatively powerful conversations.

j)

Reaction-oriented conversations are typically weak conversations.

k)

Reaction-oriented conversations can take several forms.

l)

Discussing the actions or decisions of others, reviewing what has happened for the sake of rehashing it, defending a position not taken, or complaining or gossiping about someone or something are examples of relatively non-productive conversations.

m)

Reviewing decisions or actions where we (still) have the power to affect the outcome, change course, or review our own decisions and actions can be relatively productive conversations.

n)

Most reaction-oriented conversations are not about constructive criticism and self-reflection, which is why most of them are weak conversations.

o)

Conversations designed to destroy things in the world are relatively weak conversations.

p)

Conversations focused on the present or the future are relatively powerful conversations.

q)

Conversations focused on the past are relatively weak conversations.

r)

Conversations focused on acknowledging others are relatively powerful conversations.

s)

Conversations focused on complaining – about others or ourselves, for anything – are relatively weak conversations. (The only powerful form of complaint is complaining to a person who can actually do something about the problem.)

a)

People perceive other people, the actions of other people, and the world in general, through pattern recognition – and the patterns people notice are usually based on past experience.

b)

People assign meaning to the actions of others, to other people, and to the world in general – and usually do so based on past experience.

c)

Actions and events exist in the physical world. Meaning exists in our heads.

d)

The meaning we assign to a person, action, or event is never literally “true.” We make it up. We could just as easily make up some other meaning for some action or event.

e)

The patterns and meaning that people make up exist primarily in peoples’ heads. They exist in the world of ideas and not in the physical world.

f)

To the extent that others agree with the meaning we assign to an event or a situation, we begin to believe that the meaning we create in our head is real – that it actually exists, and that it is the truth.

g)

To the extent that others agree with the meaning we assign to an event or a situation, we consider them smart and well-informed. (Our friends and allies tend to be people who usually agree with us.)

h)

To the extent that others disagree with the meaning we assign to an event or a situation, we consider them ignorant and poorly informed. People who are heavily attached to their version of events often believe that others are wrong, liars, or even enemies.

a)

Facts exist in the physical world. Ideas exist in the mind (sometimes they’re called thoughts, interpretations, concepts, or theories).

b)

Ideas are useful fictions, created by people to make sense of the world.

c)

Ideas are fictions, because people make them up. Ideas are useful because they provide a structure, in the world of ideas, for making sense of the physical world.

d)

Ideas are never “true” or “false” in a literal sense; they have validity insofar as they are useful approximations to some thing or process that takes place in the physical world.

e)

Interpretations about the meaning of facts are a type of idea, so interpretations exist in the mind.

f)

People typically have many more interpretations in their heads than facts.

g)

There are multiple interpretations for any fact that exists in the world.

h)

People weigh the relative merits of competing interpretations, but often confuse their preference for a particular interpretation with “the truth.”

i)

Interpretations exist in the mind, so interpretations are not real (you can’t touch them).

j)

Interpretations about facts are, by definition, never “true” or “false,” – they are simply good or poor approximations to the actual events, processes, or people involved.

k)

While there is sometimes disagreement about facts, it is more common that people disagree about the interpretation of the facts – what particular facts mean for people and society.

l)

That does not mean that one interpretation is as good as the next. There are standards of evidence that can be applied to determine which interpretation is the closest to reality.

m)

When it comes to knowledge and how we know things, science and other forms of systematic inquiry are useful because they provide an agreed-upon standard for gathering, evaluating, and interpreting evidence.

n)

As individuals grow from childhood to adulthood, there are distinct stages of intellectual development. Intellectual development is simplified here as the ability to take on different points of view and reflect on one’s own preferences, biases, and predispositions.

o)

Education is the path to understanding and debating these fundamental issues. This includes formal education for young people, college-level education when people are ready and interested, and life-long education for all, through formal learning programs, informative media programming, and public discourse that covers important issues.