The topics included here address Cultural Maturity’s changes more theoretically. They deepen understanding by comparing what we see from Cultural Maturity’s vantage with other notions about the future, by looking more conceptually at what is new, or by addressing the cognitive underpinnings of the changes we see. Cultural Maturity involves not just new ideas, but whole new kinds of ideas. Appreciating how this is so is necessary if the concept itself is to make full sense. Some of these topics draw specifically on Creative Systems Theory, others reflect more general observations.
Adapted from Cultural Maturity—A Guidebook for the Future Cultural Maturity confronts us repeatedly with limits inherent to what any kind of system can be for another. Such limits are themselves not new, but Whole-Person/Whole-System relationship requires a level of conscious … Read More
Adapted from Cultural Maturity—A Guidebook for the Future Today we see technologies that are increasingly dynamic, complex, and richly networked. Are such new technologies producing today’s new ways of thinking or does the causality go the other way around. The … Read More
From Cultural Maturity—A Guidebook for the Future Articulating culturally mature concepts present us with a dilemma that might initially seem like a showstopper. When addressing mature perspective’s more “complexly complex” realities, both images and words present difficulties. In part, the … Read More
Excerpted from Quick and Dirty Answers to the Biggest of Questions The most precise language for talking about where Integrative Meta-perspective takes us draws on the concept of systems. Systems thinking emphasizes the need to consider all the pieces; … Read More
Excerpted from Quick and Dirty Answers to the Biggest of Questions The changes that come with Transition in any formative process involves more than just letting go of one stage and moving to another—they bring into question the whole … Read More
Adapted from Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future Capacitance is the second of Creative Systems Theory primary Whole System patterning concepts (the first being the Questions of Referent). It refers to a person’s overall capacity to take in, … Read More
Adapted from Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future The specific way polar dynamics evolve invites sophisticated understanding of formative process more generally and also Cultural Maturity’s particular changes. Answering the question of why we think in polar terms … Read More
Identity and relationship in times past have been systemically partial, based on projection and mythologized perception. Cultural Maturity offers the possibility of more systemic complete, Whole Person/Whole System identity and relationship. This change takes its most encompassing form in … Read More
Adapted from Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future Identity and relationship in times past have been of a specifically two-halves-makes-a whole sort. By giving parts of ourselves away for safekeeping, we’ve protected ourselves from the full complexity of natures … Read More
Adapted from Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future The notion of a needed new human maturity—especially when filled out with more theoretical distinctions—is unusual as much for the specifically developmental/evolutionary kind of idea it reflects as for its … Read More
Adapted from Quick and Dirty Answers to the Biggest of Questions: If culturally mature perspective involves being able to more consciously apply our toolmaking, meaning-making—creative—natures, then it must entail using our human intelligence in more consciously creative ways. In … Read More
Adapted from Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future The most specific language for talking about our complex natures draws on the concept of systems. Systems thinking emphasizes the need to consider all the pieces; that connections are as … Read More
Adapted from Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future How do best talk about how culturally mature perspective alters understanding? Most simply, such perspective lets us more directly address life’s bigness. But we need more precise ways to speak … Read More
Adapted from draft of Creative Systems Theory: “We select the illusion which appeals to our temperament….” —Cyril Connolly Creative Systems Theory describes how human systems pattern creatively not just over time but also in the here and … Read More
Questions of Referent (Aliveness)—adapted from Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future The pertinent Question of Referent is where we must start when addressing any question from a culturally mature perspective. Without cultural guideposts to direct us, we must … Read More
Adapted from Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future Transitional Absurdity refers to a dynamic that for quite a while I questioned. Only recently have I written about it. I now think in fact it is quite important. It … Read More
Adapted from Cultural Maturity: A Guidebook for the Future The recognition that culturally mature perspective “bridges” common polar assumptions points us toward a simple, yet powerful comparison tool. Ideas that don’t successfully “bridge”—and there are lots of ways this can … Read More
Adapted from Quick and Dirty Answers to the Biggest of Questions: To fully appreciate how Cultural Maturity alters truth itself, we need at least a basic sense of the cognitive processes that produce Cultural Maturity’s changes. Creative Systems Theory has … Read More