© Dr Kelvyn Youngman, Jan 20141 Jaques, Polanyi, & Quintaves Elliott Jaques proposed that we think in one of 4 methods of mental processing, shown here

© Dr Kelvyn Youngman, Jan 2014 1

Jaques, Polanyi, & Quintaves

Elliott Jaques proposed that we think in one of 4 methods of mental processing, shown here in descending order



The first is declarative processing, each reason is separate, on its own, and has no connection with any other, it has a disjunctive quality



The second is cumulative processing, different reasons none of which are sufficient alone, are pulled together, it has a conjunctive quality



The third is serial processing, the reasons form different strings of cause and effect, it has a conditional quality within each string



The fourth is parallel processing, different strings of thought are linked and reinforced, each depends upon the other, it has a bi-conditional quality



But there is more; Jaques argued that these 4 methods repeat from the pre-verbal actions and then verbal concrete thoughts of childhood …



… through to the symbolic verbal and conceptual abstract of adulthood



Jaques once described the sequence from say, declarative concrete verbal to declarative symbolic verbal, as a “quintave”



I want to show how these methods are related to the Theory of Constraints logic known as the Thinking Processes …



This draws deeply upon Polanyi’s concept of emergence and Piaget’s structuralism



Let’s start



Let’s start with something very simple; two disjunctive entities, a man and a women, not much fun huh?

If WomanIf Man Or



So, let’s make it conjunctive, and add an “and” …

If WomanIf Man And



… and “then” the fun begins, its called a relationship

If WomanIf Man

Relationship

And

Then



Nothing about being a man and nothing about being a woman will tell you about the conjunction of being a relationship

If WomanIf Man

Relationship

And

Then



The relationship is emergent or transcendent, there is nothing in the particulars of the parts that will tell you about the emergence of the whole – whether that

be physical or metaphysical

If WomanIf Man

Relationship

And

Then

Now what about the disjunction, nay dysfunction, between brother or sister …



If WomanIf Man

Relationship

If Brother If SisterAnd

Then

Or



… or rather between brother and sister, nothing can prepare you for the higher order which is siblings or offspring

If WomanIf Man

Relationship

If Brother If Sister

Offspring

And

Then

And

Then



Now we come to an interesting point, there is nothing in the particulars of being in a relationship or being offspring that prepares you for …

If WomanIf Man

Relationship


Offspring

And

Then

And

Then

Or



If WomanIf Man

If Relationship


If Offspring

Family

And

Then

And

Then

And

Then

… the and of being “family”



Each of these levels emerges and must transcend the particulars of the parts of the levels one below

If WomanIf Man

If Relationship


If Offspring

Family

And

Then

And

Then

And

Then



Now let’s repeat this sequence with a slightly different example

If WomanIf Man

If Relationship


If Offspring

Family

And

Then

And

Then

And

Then



Individual A or individual B tells us nothing of …

If Individual BIf Individual A Or



… the synergy that comes from individual A and individual B in Team A/B, the output of Team A/B transcends the sum of the output of individual A in isolation

and of individual B in isolation

If Individual BIf Individual A

Team A/B

And

Then



Moreover, nothing in Team A/B or Team C/D can prepare us for …


If Team A/B

If Individual C If Individual D

If Team C/D

And

Then

And

Then

Or



… the synergy that comes from Team A/B and Team C/D in Project A/B/C/D, the output of Project A/B/C/D transcends the output of the sum of Team A/B in

isolation and of Team C/D in isolation


If Team A/B


If Team C/D

Project A/B/C/D

And

Then

And

Then

And

Then



Now hold onto these thoughts because we are going to use this same pattern to have a look at the concept of ecology


If Team A/B


If Team C/D

Project A/B/C/D

And

Then

And

Then

And

Then



There is nothing in the particulars of chemistry or of physics that would prepare us for the emergence of …

If PhysicsIf Chemistry Or



… the and, the synergy of, that results in biology. Biology transcends the sum of the particulars of chemistry and of the particulars of physics

If PhysicsIf Chemistry

Biology

And

Then



Now, with a tip of the hat to Gregory Bateson, nothing in the study of biology or in the study of the environment could prepare us for …


Biology

If Chemistry If Physics

Environment

And

Then

And

Then

Or



… the synergy which is ecology. Ecology transcends the output of the sum of the biological inputs and the sum of the environmental inputs.

Let’s all smoke marijuana and all be happy, I mean hippy. Praise Gaia.


If Biology


If Environment

Ecology

And

Then

And

Then

And

Then



We could not understand ecology until we could understand biology and we could understand environment, and we could not understand those until we

could understand chemistry and we could understand physics


If Biology


If Environment

Ecology

And

Then

And

Then

And

Then



In our language there must be redundancy in the lower logical type in order for the potentiality to arise, to emerge, in the higher logical type


If Biology


If Environment

Ecology

And

Then

And

Then

And

Then



But Polanyi’s point is that emergent from, say, chemistry and physics is an inkling that there must be something more, and from biology and environment there is again an inkling that there must be something more – this is his tacit knowing


If Biology


If Environment

Ecology

And

Then

And

Then

And

Then



This must seem all very strange nowadays, there are explicit papers on ecology till kingdom come, but once, not long ago, there were none, only a

tacit inkling that there was more to this than just straight biology


If Biology


If Environment

Ecology

And

Then

And

Then

And

Then



There is a heuristic passion, a passion for discovery, that propels us forward based upon the “feeling” that there is something more than just the particulars

of the parts


If Biology


If Environment

Ecology

And

Then

And

Then

And

Then



Polanyi argues that this in fact is a part of us because we are ourselves the very product of this process, replicated every time in our own embryology


If Biology


If Environment

Ecology

And

Then

And

Then

And

Then



OK. So, can we translate this – abduct from what we have done so far – and apply it equally to Jaques’ levels and to Goldratt’s Thinking Process? Well I think so, but it won’t look exactly the same. Nevertheless, let’s give it a go.



Here we have Jaques 4 logical or reasoning methods now in ascending order and within the level of verbal symbolic

Verbal SymbolicDisjunctive or-or

Verbal SymbolicConjunctive and-and

Verbal SymbolicConditional if-then

Verbal SymbolicBi-conditional if-and-only-if



And let’s add “biology” to this, from our recent example, to make this more relevant

Verbal Symbolic BiologyDisjunctive or-or

Verbal Symbolic BiologyConjunctive and-and

Verbal Symbolic BiologyConditional if-then

Verbal Symbolic BiologyBi-conditional if-and-only-if



And immediately of course we could add another stack for environment





Verbal Symbolic EnvironmentDisjunctive or-or

Verbal Symbolic EnvironmentConjunctive and-and

Verbal Symbolic EnvironmentConditional if-then

Verbal Symbolic EnvironmentBi-conditional if-and-only-if



Jaques is saying that we always start off with “this or that,” then “this and that,” then “if this then that,” and finally “if this and if and only if that then another” and cycles through; verbal concrete, verbal symbolic, to conceptual abstract











Now this is my point. When we get to verbal symbolic bi-conditional, it is the last step in the previous cycle for biology and the last step in the previous cycle

for environment, but it is the first step in the next for ecology - watch











Does that make sense, one of the first or-or of ecology is biology …









Conceptual Abstract Ecology Disjunctive or-or



… and another or-or is environment!













If we go; C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, then we have an octave, instead here we go; disjunctive, conjunctive, conditional, bi-conditional, disjunctive again = quintave













Polanyi is saying that each lower layer is pregnant with potential emergence of the next, and even though we drop back down to a lower level of reasoning, it

is at a higher stratum (now abstract not symbolic)













Let’s not beat ourselves up over symbolic or abstract or biology or environment or ecology. Just note how the recursion works













OK then, so how does this work in Goldratt’s Thinking Processes?And the answer is very well indeed



Let’s put Jaques progression of the 4 logical or reasoning methods into the context of the Thinking Processes



The first of these is the disjunctive or-or; we can have A or we can have B. This is exactly the UDE’s of the CRT (here upside down) – we may mix up

cause and effect and fail to distinguish between them

OrA B



The second of these is the conjunctive and-and; we can have A and A1 or we can have B and B1. Do you know what this is?

AndA1 OrA AndB B1



This is sufficiency. This is also the first part of the ordering in building a CRT. Do you see the first primitive act is just to list them, the second is to order them

AndA1 OrA AndB B1



But the moment that we begin to order things we also find the third process, conditionality; some of our effects are the cause of other effects …

AndA1 OrA AndB B1

If/ThenIf/Then

DC



… and more still

AndA1 OrA AndB B1

If/ThenIf/Then

If/Then If/Then

DC

FE



This is a conditional chain

AndA1 OrA AndB B1

If/ThenIf/Then

If/Then If/Then

DC

FE



We can add more sufficiency to it if we have to

AndA1 OrA AndB B1

If/ThenIf/Then

If/Then If/Then

DC

FEE1 And



And finally we can add bi-conditionality

AndA1 OrA AndB B1

If/ThenIf/Then

If/Then If/Then

DC

FEE1 And



And finally we can add bi-conditionality

AndA1 OrA AndB B1

If And Only If

If/ThenIf/Then

If/Then If/Then

DC

FEE1 And

G



This is what we call necessity. G can only exist if both E and F are present

AndA1 OrA AndB B1

If And Only If

If/ThenIf/Then

If/Then If/Then

DC

FEE1 And

G



Do you see how we lead people through the series from symptoms (disjunctive) to sufficiency (conjunctive) to cause-effect (conditional) to

necessity (bi-conditional)

AndA1 OrA AndB B1

If And Only If

If/ThenIf/Then

If/Then If/Then

DC

FEE1 And

G



And do you see that necessity is of a higher logical level than sufficiency?

AndA1 OrA AndB B1

If And Only If

If/ThenIf/Then

If/Then If/Then

DC

FEE1 And

G



Turn it upside-down and you have a core problem (G) leading out to apparently disparate symptomatic outcomes – a current reality tree in other words

AndA1 OrA AndB B1

If And Only If

If/ThenIf/Then

If/Then If/Then

DC

FEE1 And

G



Also we usually have quite concrete symptoms which often lead towards an abstract core problem such as trust, or the lack of some such, so we may also

transcend strata in our analysis

AndA1 OrA AndB B1

If And Only If

If/ThenIf/Then

If/Then If/Then

DC

FEE1 And

G


End

Website: www.dbrmfg.co.nz

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© Dr Kelvyn Youngman, Jan 20141 Jaques, Polanyi, & Quintaves Elliott Jaques proposed that we think in one of 4 methods of mental processing, shown here