Re: Inquiry Driven Systems
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3.2. Reflective Inquiry. Note 8
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3.2.2. Apparitions and Allegations (cont.)
In asking questions about integral patterns of activity and appearance,
where the category of action and the category of affect are mixed up in
a moderately complicated congeries with each other and stirred together
in a complex brew, it is helpful on a first approximation to "fudge" the
issue of the agent a bit, in other words, to "dodge", "fuzz", or "hedge"
any questions about the precise nature of the agent that appears to be
involved in the activities and to whom the appearances actually appear.
This intention is served by using the word "agency" in a systematically
ambiguous way, namely, to mean either an individual agent, a community
of agents, or any of the actions thereof. In this vein, the following
sorts of questions can be asked:
1. What appearances can be recognized by what agencies to occur
on a recurring basis? In other words, what appearances can
be noted by what agencies to fall under sets of rules that
describe their ultimate patterns of activity and appearance?
2. What appearances can be shared among agents and communities that are
distributed through dimensions of culture, language, space, and time?
3. What appearances can be brought under the active control of what agencies
by observing additional and alternative appearances that are associated
with them, that is, by acquiring and exploiting an acquaintance with
the larger patterns of activity and appearance that apply?
Jon Awbrey
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inquiry e-lab: http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/
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