An introduction to Paradigms, Story-lines, and “Big Ideas”
Why are paradigms, storylines and “big ideas” part of the Person/Planet vision?
Paradigms, storylines and “big ideas” are like the blueprints used to build a building. Study one blueprint, and you will understand a lot about how a particular building was put together. Study many blueprints, and you will have some strong ideas about how to design a new building. The organizing ideas we adopt become part of the supportive context for all the others Steps & Strands in the Person/Planet’s build-a-new-project/become-a-new-person creative process.
According to many insightful thinkers, our most productive thinking is always a pattern of carefully observed facts arranged by carefully refined organizing ideas. One the the most well-known proponents of this idea was the anthropologist Gregory Bateson.
Bateson believed that the key to understanding the world is not found in isolated facts or individual data points. Rather, he argued that the true patterns and connections that give meaning to information can only be discerned by examining the relationships between different elements. This was summed up in his famous and provocative view that the pattern that connects the data is not to be found in any one individual piece of data. This view was explored in Bateson’s 1979 book “Mind and Nature”, where he explored his concept of the “ecology of mind” and the idea that the key to understanding the world is to look at the relationships and patterns that connect different elements, rather than just individual facts or data points.
Bateson’s perspective shares some key similarities with the ideas of Immanuel Kant, the influential 18th-century philosopher. Like Kant, Bateson believed that the human mind actively shapes and structures our perception of reality, rather than simply passively receiving information.
Bateson’s insights about the importance of relationships and patterns can also be seen as parallel to the work of cognitive scientist Roger Schank. In his book “Narrative and Intelligence,” Schank argued that human intelligence is fundamentally shaped by our ability to recognize, understand, and create narratives (patterns that unfold in time).
Like Bateson, Schank believed that meaning emerges not from isolated facts, but from the ways in which those facts are organized and connected into coherent stories. He saw narrative as a fundamental cognitive process that allows us to make sense of the world and our experiences within it. Both Bateson and Schank challenged the traditional view of knowledge as a collection of discrete, decontextualized pieces of information. Instead, they emphasized the importance of examining the dynamic, relational structures that underlie our understanding of reality.
READING LIST FOR THIS STEP & STRAND
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
explains paradigms and paradigm shifts. Progress happens in science not only from finding something new, like a new planet or a new star, but also from organizing patiently gathered observational data into new patterns of meaning, using new, over-arching ideas.
Roger Schank, Tell Me a Story: Narrative and Intelligence
explores the role of story-making in human thought processes. Human beings understand their life experiences through stories and their underlying themes, but modern societies organize themselves with ideas, abstractions and equations, often disparaging stories as only for children or the less intelligent, mere entertainment. But there are drastic social costs for ignoring people’s need for meaning and connection, expressed as the desire to include oneself as a participant in a meaningful story.
Riane Eisler and Douglas P. Fry, Nurturing Our Humanity:
How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future. The evolution of human societies from domination to cooperation can be understood as a META-STORY, an over-arching story about human life that can organize all other human stories into a meaningful pattern.