Where is the ecology-of-thought?

  In the book ‘Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together‘ William Isaacs takes the idea of the ecology of thought into a different direction. From his work with physicist David Bohm, ‘Dialogue’ is provided as the answer. The question that answer then prompts is seen to be the problem of: “Why have we not learned […]

What do we mean by ‘ecological’?

To answer this question, I’d like to highlight the work of four theorists in complementary research spaces. They each provide a contemporary perspective of value within a wider discourse and provide ways of thinking about the ‘ecology of thought’, or more specifically ‘ecological-thought’. More importantly, appreciation of this work allows others to move past a […]

What is abductive thought?

The answer to this question highlights both the ‘reason for’ and the ‘findings from’ my Doctoral research. I asked a question not often asked and found by its uncommon asking the reason we don’t often ask it. I was reflecting on my PhD Thesis conferral recently. For me the undertaking of this doctoral program was […]

Where is the pattern-that-connects?

I am currently (re)reading my entire set of the collected works of Gregory Bateson. One of the most interesting passages is in an earlier work where Gregory Bateson’s father, William Bateson (1861-1926) who formed the term ‘genetics’, initially describes what became an enduring theme in Gregory’s work, being the ‘pattern that connects’. William Bateson observed (in […]

What is a Thought-Ecology?

A thought-ecology is a way of studying how thought is working when people do something together collaboratively. This way of considering the capacity of human social systems recognises the connections between conceptual potentials. It finds the dynamics occurring in the patterns that connect our thinking. What this enables is a practical appreciation of the potentials […]