Five-fold cognitive dynamics of relevance to governance?

Enhancing Strategic Discourse Systematically using Climate Metaphors (Part #9)

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As noted by Wikipedia, the idea of five-dimensional space is an abstraction which occurs frequently in mathematics, where it is a legitimate construct. Whether or not the real universe in which we live is somehow five-dimensional is a topic that is debated and explored in several branches of physics, including astrophysics and particle physics. Given such a possibility, and the evident inadequacy of governance to date, to what extent might a five-dimensional perspective merit careful attention with respect to psychosociaL organization and dynamics?

Clues are offered by the traditional importance associated with quintessence. The perspective has been given one focus by Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization, 1990). How is such insight related to the dualistic dynamics of the sidedness by which governance is undermined?

Further indications are offered by the adaptive cycle of resilience, as notably argued by Thomas Homer-Dixon (The Upside of Down: catastrophe, creativity, and the renewal of civilization, 2006).

Representation of adaptive cycle in complex systems (with many variants available via Google images) *** flowers
(adapted from a variant of Thomas Homer-Dixon, The Upside of Down, 2006)	(as reproduced from Panarchy, as described by The Sustainable Scale Project)

A 3-fold cycle is a central feature of the phenomenological epoché of Francisco Varlea (The Gesture of Awareness, 1999), as discussed and illustrated separately (Present Moment Research: exploration of nowness, 2001). [see also Claus Otto Scharmer. Three Gestures of Becoming Aware: Conversation with Francisco Varela, January 12, 2000].

Five-fold dynamic: In arguing for recognition of a 5-fold dynamic, it is somewhat ironic to note the correspondence between fundamental traditional understandings of East and West, as exemplified by the pentagrams of Hygeia and Wu Xing, discussed separately in detail, and from which the following images were reproduced (Cycles of enstoning forming mnemonic pentagrams: Hygiea and Wu Xing, 2012).

Hygeia (Hugieia) Pentagram of Pythagoreans	Chinese 5-phase Wu Xing cycle
Reproduced from Hygiea entry in Wikipedia (G. J. Allman Greek Geometry From Thales to Euclid, 1889, p.26) with labels added	Adapted from Wu Xing entry in Wikipedia Interaction arrows: black=generating; white= overcoming

The dynamics of the tetrahedra, and those above, point to new ways of understanding the circularity of arguments and the so-called vicious cycles with which wicked problems are associated in undermining strategic coherence as conventionally understood. Arguments relating to the spiral representation below are developed separately in further (
Adaptive Hypercycle of Sustainable Psychosocial Self-organization: designing a mapping of a Chinese metaphorical pattern language, 2010; System Dynamics, Hypercycles and Psychosocial Self-organization exploration of Chinese correlative understanding, 2010)

Preliminary indication of potential relevance of a hypercycle perspective as implied by the changes encoded by the set of hexagrams representing conditions of change (from the so-called Book of Changes)
Hexagram organization by "houses" (reduced version of image above)	Indication of transformation pathways between conditions represented by hexagrams in image on left (rings rotated to simplify graphics)	Illustrative representation of hypercycle (from Principia Cybernetica entry)

The integrative exercise above is potentially significant in relation to the original consideration of cyclic self-organization of social systems by Erich Jantsch (The Self-Organizing Universe: scientific and human implications of the emerging paradigm of evolution, 1980). As discussed in a commentary on Embracing Difference: system dynamics for the Global Strategies Project in the above-mentioned Encyclopedia, Jantsch draws attention to the work of Manfred Eigen in molecular genetics. Eigen explores the question of how new information originates (Manfred Eigen and Peter Schuster, The Hypercycle: A principle of natural self-organization, 1979). This is a general problem of evolution, which Jantsch relates to development and to learning.

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