Gurteen Knowledge Letter
Issue 251 – May 2021
Introduction
My next Knowledge Café workshop is coming up fast in just over 1 week on 20th May. You can find more information and register for it here.
I had some great feedback from the last workshop – do come along if you are interested in applying the power of conversation.
Contents
- Social Reasoning
The Argumentative Theory of Human Reason - A more contested world
A report on the future by the US Intelligence Community - Societal Knowledge Management
Reflections on the Future - The value of a contrarian thinker
They help you question your beliefs - Making better sense of the world through conversation
A conversation with David Gurteen, Director of Gurteen Knowledge - Do you know the difference between complex and complicated?
Most people don't - Help Keep My Work Alive
- Unsubscribe
- Gurteen Knowledge Letter
Social Reasoning
The Argumentative Theory of Human Reason
I recently came across a fascinating theory concerning the evolution of human reason known as "The Argumentative Theory of Human Reason". However, I prefer to use the term “theory of social reasoning” or simply “social reasoning”.
The theory proposes that the primary function of reason is not to improve our knowledge but to exchange arguments with each other.
Reason did not evolve to help us to reason individually but to reason socially. In other words, reasoning is a social phenomenon.
I like the theory - if true - as it reinforces the idea that cognition is distributed and that knowledge is communal.
It also bolsters the view that small group conversations help us make better sense of the world and should be at the heart of deliberative democracy.
You can see what I have written on the subject and the resources I have pulled together so far here — The Argumentative Theory of Human Reason.
A more contested world
A report on the future by the US Intelligence Community
The US Intelligence Community has published a report entitled Global Trends 2040: A More Contested World.
The report has been published every four years since 1997 and assesses the key trends and uncertainties that will shape the strategic environment for the United States during the next two decades.
It makes interesting reading and maybe not surprisingly warns of political volatility, growing international competitions, and possible conflicts in our hyperconnected VUCA world.
Societal Knowledge Management
Reflections on the Future
I recently wrote an article for the Henley Forum on what I call Societal Knowledge Management that takes a somewhat different perspective to many others on the future of Knowledge Management.
Early in the article, I make the point that Knowledge Management did not start in 1991 or thereabouts. KM started 50,000 earlier when something amazing happened - the emergence of speech and language and with it the cultural big bang.
With the cultural big bang came a great leap forward. Now we could pass down our knowledge from generation to generation much faster through cumulative cultural evolution and not the biologically slower process through our genes.
The article draws on and is linked to much of the material in my book. You can find it here — Societal Knowledge Management.
The value of a contrarian thinker
They help you question your beliefs
I used to have a good friend. We could talk about absolutely anything and had some incredible conversations. He died a few years ago, and I greatly miss him.
What I liked about him, but at the same time, what annoyed me was that he was a contrarian.
Whenever I expressed an opinion, he would typically rubbish it. He would not just say he disagreed and explain why; he would tell me that I talked a load of nonsense in no uncertain terms.
He did this for almost any topic I cared to raise. He was well educated and as sharp as a pin. He could argue black was white.
He was infuriating. More than once, we had some huge arguments, but we never fell out for long.
Sometimes he had deeply thought through an issue and had good reason to take up a contrarian viewpoint but more often than not, he just enjoyed a good debate though it often felt more like a fight.
I miss those conversations. In many ways, they were not constructive conversations. But he provoked some deep thinking in me, and I rarely failed to change my views in at least some small way.
If we are to make better sense of the world, we should seek out contrarian thinkers and not avoid them.
Making better sense of the world through conversation
A conversation with David Gurteen, Director of Gurteen Knowledge
Douglas Ferguson of Voltage Control recently recorded a podcast where I talked about conversion and making a better sense of our complex world. I also touched on street epistemology, virtual knowledge cafés, and my interest in astrophysics.
“And it seemed to me that so many of the problems and issues that we face in the world were down to this increasing connectivity, increasing complexity that we weren’t really suited to deal with. And so it dawned on me that conversation was the tool that we could use to make better sense of the world.” – David Gurteen
Take a look, or should I say a listen.
Do you know the difference between complex and complicated?
Most people don't
Do you know the difference between complex and complicated?
Most people don't. It's an important distinction to understand when living and working in a complex world.
Sonja Blignaut outlines several differences in this blog post 7 Differences between complex and complicated.
The Cynefin Framework also helps you take better decisions by making the distinction clear.
Help Keep My Work Alive
Sustaining 25 Years of shared learning and conversation
For almost 25 years, I've been sharing the Gurteen Knowledge Letter each month, and many of you have been reading it for five years or more. My Knowledge Café also reached a milestone, celebrating its 20th anniversary in September 2022.
If my work has made a difference to you, I'd be grateful if you could consider supporting it. A small monthly donation or any one-off contribution would greatly help cover some of my website hosting costs.
Thank you to the 50+ patrons who have already supported me - your generosity means a great deal.
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David Gurteen
Gurteen Knowledge
Fleet, United Kingdom
