> Mnr AM de Lange wrote:
>
> > To finish off, my interpretation of what Durval said, is that 'a society
> > becomes a community when it begins to commute and hence foster the
> > emergence of humanity'.
>
> At, I understand you mean that as commutation starts, some objects within
> the boundaries of an organism actually are shared by a group (community).
Exactly.
> Consequently, the individual boundaries of an organism cease to be well
> defined and it is more accurate to talk about the community boundaries.
Hmmm. I see it slightly different. The individual's boundaries 'decrease'
with a coupled 'increase' in the community's boundaries. I think your next
sentence describe how I see it.
> Humanity is actualized both in absolute individuality (each person's
> contribution to humanity cannot be substituted) and absolute community
> (there is not humanity without community).
I often think of your 'absolute individuality' as the 'kernel (germ) of
individuality', that part of a human's makeup which is under control of
only that particular individual. As I commute more and more with humans
all over the globe, the more I experience how my individuality gets
'peeled off' to lay bare my 'kernel of individuality'. The more I observe
my own 'kernel of individuality', the more I realise how important it that
I and only I can change it, requiring all my creativity.
I also think of your 'absolute community' as the 'sheave of collectivity'.
In other words, as soon as commutation begins, certain things always
emerge which is characterestic of or common to all human communities, for
example language. These things define the sheave.
> The conciliation of this apparent contradiction is what I understand you
> call commutation. Do you agree?
Exactly. The contradiction between the 'kernel of our individuality' and
the 'sheave of our collectivity' is first experienced as an apparent
contradiction because of not being able to recognise our emergent
experiences. This recognition depends on certain essentialities which have
to manifest themselves in our cognition. These essentialities together can
be summarised by one single concept, namely commutation.
May I exemplify commutation in the following ways:
1. Commutation is that which is essential to communication.
In other words, we cannot have communication without some
level of commutation.
2. Commutation is that which is essential to communities.
In other words, we cannot have communities without some
level of commutation.
3. Commutation is that which is essential to internet. In other
words, we cannot explore the growing richness of virtual
reality without some level of commutation.
4. Commutation is that which is essential to creativity. In
other words, we cannot explore our creativity without some
level of commutation.
In other words, commutation summarises the patterns essential to the
emergence of a higher order with more complexity out of chaos.
Best wishes
--At de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>