Re-cognizing freedom of identification

Geometry, Topology and Dynamics of Identity (Part #6)

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The focus in what follows is to identify how individuals remain free to explore and benefit from geometrical objects in support of the development of their own identity -- despite the above constraints then understood as framing windows of cognitive opportunity. The exploration is consistent with the principles of such as Paul Feyerabend (Against Method: outline of an anarchistic theory of knowledge, 1975; Conquest of Abundance: a tale of abstraction versus the richness of being, 1999) -- as previously discussed (Value Embodiment: participatory engagement with environmental reality, 2008; Declaration of Universal Independence: delinking from detachment through radical questioning, 2009).

The windows of opportunity are conveniently identified with the aid of the following figure.

Tentative map relating "closed" and "open" arenas

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This cognitive freedom is a feature of:

• the creativity of an individual or group: understood as the freedom to reimagine one's own identity, to "reinvent oneself" as accepted and admired in the case of media celebrities (Being What You Want: problematic kataphatic identity vs. potential of apophatic identity? 2008)
  
  
• a focus on what "works": with the emphasis placed on articulating a sense of identity that is most fruitful or integrative rather than accepting restrictive, reductionist understandings of identity promoted through narrow disciplinary frameworks. The fruitful approach is therefore intimately associated with its aesthetic and intuitive appreciation
  
  
• working with the integrity of what one understands: with the emphasis on what resonates with one's own comprehension and sense of coherence, irrespective of whether this adequately reflects the subtler insights promoted elsewhere with whatever authority. As with the challenge of a habitable shelter, the question is what one can obtain or construct with the resources available rather than "better" forms of shelter to which one does not have access.
  
  The issue is what can be assembled that offers a degree of shelter and identity. Views from elsewhere by those with greater knowledge, and the inability to communicate it effectively, are all but irrelevant. Again this renders secondary any sense of obligation to seek external authentication or authorization for the form that serves such a function. The assumption that a set of texts should be read, that lengthy courses should be attended to achieve relevant qualifications, or that experts should be consulted, is an increasingly naive indulgence.
  
  As noted above, the era of global knowledge society is likely to be a context in which cognitive constructs can only be built with the "scraps" to which one has access with the time available -- from the scrap heaps of knowledge. To the extent that the inappropriateness of any insistence on perfect materials is now only too evident in refugee camps, many in the future will effectively be "knowledge refugees" -- even if they do not already have that status.
  
  
• exploitation of a useful mnemonic: however curious to others, worthy of consideration is any form that serves as an aid to "re-membering" an identity that is easily fragmented (even "shattered") by daily encounters with reality (In Quest of Mnemonic Catalysts -- for comprehension of complex psychosocial dynamics, 2007). The attitude recalls the traditional status of memory palaces and memory theatres in the Ars Memorativa as highlighted by Frances A. Yates (The Art of Memory, 1966) and Jonanthan D. Spence. (The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci, 1984). With respect to the geometric argument here, Yates notably focused on the graphical memory devices in the works of Giordano Bruno (mentioned above).
  
  
• detachment from any particular form: whilst a form may indeed be useful as a support for a sense of identity, there is no need to be dependent on a particular form, either when others emerge as more fruitful, or where there is a case for alternating between a set of (complementary) forms (Policy Alternation for Development, 1984). As with any shelter, a form may then be understood as a stepping stone to more adequate forms -- or as a "secondary dwelling" (for use in "summer" or "winter").
  
  
• the tentative status of the form used: use may be made of a form that is in some way incomplete (or incompletely understood), where what is understood is felt to be sufficient (avoiding premature closure) and where others may even benefit from it in that form -- appreciating their own possibility of developing it further. Mathematics is itself incomplete and unfinished and perhaps most significantly in terms of what may be relevant for any understanding of individual identity (cf Kurt Gödel, On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems, 1931).
  
  
• partial comprehension: any "tentative status" may be associated with varying degrees of comprehension of the form, including not understanding as highlighted by Q-analysis (Social organization determined by incommunicability of insight, 1995).
  
  
• "reinventing the wheel": given the challenge of access to resources and the constraints on determining how best to use them, it may well be more efficient to recreate something. This is a well-known experience in computer programming when rewriting a program may be more efficient than endeavouring to understand and develop an earlier program (even one's own, when poorly remembered).
  
  
• tolerance of error: Donald N. Michael (Learning to Plan and Planning to Learn, 1997), stresses the "requirement to embrace error":

  More bluntly, future-responsive societal learning makes it necessary for individuals and organizations to embrace error. It is the only way to ensure a shared self-consciousness about limited theory on the nature of social dynamics, about limited data for testing theory, and hence about our limited ability to control our situation well enough to be successful more often than not.

Examples of maps with related concerns
AQAL Map: "All Quadrants All Levels" Open Source Integral [click for larger version]	Interrelating problematique, resolutique, "imaginatique" and "irresolutique" [click for larger version]
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