Back to Stage 1

-- Guide to the Water Trail

Stage 2: The Hairy Hypothesis

There's something wild loose in here!


If I cried out, who would hear me up there among the orders of
Angels? And suppose one were to take me
Suddenly to heart -- I would
Shrivel before such a stronger existence. For beauty is nothing
But the first edge of terror we can only just bear;
And it astonishes, while it coolly disdains
To dismiss us. Every single angel is terrible!
So, I hold myself in and swallow the
Dark sob of desire. Is there anyone
We can turn to? Not Angels, not men;
And even the cunning beasts exploit our discomfort
In this interpreted world.
--Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies (author trans.)

THE WILDERNESS

"Hair" refers to the wild part of nature, both within us and outside.

Hair includes:

Myths and stories have spoken of:

These pages hypothesize that the wild part of nature is
real
an important influence in our lives
pervasive
it's everywhere and always possible, and often actually present
uncontrollable
wherever and however we try to tame it, it breaks out

THE HAIRY HYPOTHESIS

Formulations of the hairy hypothesis:
from direct exerience
There is something inherent in reality that generates conflicts, errors, opposition, blockages, lack of essentials, unsuitability and other difficulties that are universally and constantly encountered in all activities.
psychological
We aren't smart enough to figure things out. We aren't smart enough to figure ourselves out, either.
analytic
It is always possible to discover discrepancies between events and circumstances and any mental representation of them we construct. It is never possible for two persons to agree entirely on any matter to any substantial depth and diversity of detail.
metaphysical
Reality is not only queerer than we imagine, but queerer than we can possibly imagine (paraphrased from J.B.S. Haldane's epigram about the Universe).
as part of reality
Reality does not possess coherent unity.
as part of experience
Experiences come with structures inside:
The "smooth hypothesis" opposes the hairy hypothesis and declares: The smooth hypothesis leads to a "smooth reality" with laws that are:
permanent
enduring unchanged
complete
behind each and every experience
general
a few elements out of which all arise
universal
the same for everyone
coherent
without contradiction or internal inconsistency
Comparing the two hypotheses:

ARGUMENTS FOR THE HAIRY HYPOTHESIS

Arguments based on immediate experience Arguments based on view that experience is like a system found in engineering or science that: Arguments based on intellectual history
some hit jackpots, nobody breaks the bank
attempts to establish scientific relationships between structure and reality have been only partially successful
scientific revolutions and evolutions
new paradigms sometimes sweep the field and all theories undergo continual change
systems of ideas do not merge, but only breed
the nature of a theory is specific to its discipline and each discipline has a unique style; no discipline has an inherent governance of any other (ask a chemist about physics, a physicist about mathematics).

HYPOTHESIZING REALITY

It is a fact of life (perhaps the first fact) that there is something outside my experience that I call "reality" (sometimes "actual reality").
Piaget teaches that, during the second year of life, a child constructs an image of itself (with body parts, sensations, acts) and also an external universe of other objects. "This organization of reality occurs to the extent that the self is freed from itself by finding itself and so assigns itself a place as a thing among things, an event among events." Piaget, Introduction to The Construction of Reality in the Child.

Reality is found in:

Adherence to the hairy hypothesis implies rejection of smooth reality. Stage 3 supports the view that the purported characteristics of smooth reality are not real, but only often erroneous images projected from processes that generate experience [e.g., that the ideal characteristic of permanence derives from our preference for states (where conditions endure unchanged)]

The ways of the hairy hypothesis differ from those appropriate for smooth reality.
The ways appropriate for smooth reality are studied in such disciplines as philosophy, physical science, psychology. These disciplines focus on matters where actual reality most closely resembles smooth reality. Their successes do not mean that all actual reality is smooth reality. Indeed, examination of these disciplines and their "foundations" supports a strong form of the hairy hypothesis that declares no part of reality is entirely smooth.


THE WAYS OF THE HAIRY HYPOTHESIS

The Way of Error The Way of Development The Way of Multiplicity The Way of Example

AN ENGINE FOR DEVELOPMENT

Development, like walking, is never in balance. We cannot use the customary scientific model with a single overarching system of definitions into which everything is presumed to fit. Instead there are several interacting parts that sometimes fit together easily and sometimes not.

Development employs an artificial psychology:

A cycle of development:

Example: the co-ordinated changes that make possible the introduction of relations in stage_3 of Water Trail:


Forward to Stage Three.


All materials copyright by Robert Kovsky, 1997.