Sara Nora Ross

WHAT POSTFORMAL THOUGHT IS, AND WHY IT MATTERS

The four stages of postformal thought are Systematic, Metasystematic, Paradigmatic, and Cross-Paradigmatic. Each successive stage is more hierarchically complex than the one that precedes it. Each stage uses the elements formed at the previous stage to construct more hierarchically complex elements (e.g., metasystems, paradigms). An actual instrument constructed using the Model of Hierarchical Complexity illustrates the progression in hierarchical complexity. Another example illustrates the nonlinear nature of hierarchical complexity. The distinct tasks of the four stages are described. Postformal thought benefits interpersonal, societal, and academic endeavors by virtue of the kinds of tasks performed at each stage.

Fractal Transition Steps to Fractal Stages: The Dynamics of Evolution, II

Successful applications of hierarchical complexity to the behaviors of organisms, animals and humans, and social entities evidence the scaling properties of self-similarity, thus the bounded fractal characteristics of orders of hierarchical complexity. The theory specifies an identical sequence of discrete-state transition steps required from each stage of performance to the next. It repeats at all scales. Tasks nested within the step sequence evidence self-similarity with the orders of complexity. This model introduces questions about noise categories when system tasks are fully accounted for, dependent, self-similar, and measurable. Ubiquitous transition steps are inherent dynamics of evolution.

EDITORS' INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE ON POSTFORMAL THOUGHT AND HIERARCHICAL COMPLEXITY

We thank Alfonso Montouri and World Futures for inviting this special issue to highlight postformal thought and a range of work from the field of hierarchical complexity that defines it. Alfonso stressed that he wanted the issue to lay out the theory and postformal thought along with some of their respective applications and implications. Contributors to this issue have attempted to meet those expectations, for which we are grateful. The Model of Hierarchical Complexity has a long history that only in very recent years resulted in its formal specification as a general theory. Our introduction to this special issue thus has three tasks to perform. It gives a synopsis of the Model’s characteristics. Commons relates a brief history of the origins of the field of hierarchical complexity. He does this in order to identify with gratitude those who played key roles in influencing him and contributing to the Model’s development over these many years. We then sketch the special issue’s layout to suggest the story it is designed to tell.

Postformal (Mis)Communications

Postformal capacities should be employed on everything from poverty to war to planetary survival, yet, there are inherent, unrecognized problems to resolve before they are likely to succeed. Ironically, the very benefits of postformal thought are what make it hard to operationalize those benefits. Postformal thought-leaders need to re-learn and strategically use their earlier ways of thinking and speaking. “Translations” of words using hierarchical complexitys different languages illustrate why. Additional inquiry and dialogic interactions can improve communications and benefit work on our pressing planetary futures.

TOWARD A CROSS-SPECIES MEASURE OF GENERAL INTELLIGENCE

Science requires postformal capabilities to compare competing explanations and conceptualize how to coordinate or integrate them. With conflicts thus reconciled, science advances. The Model of Hierarchical Complexity facilitates the coordination of current arguments about intelligence. A cross-species measurement theory of comparative cognition is proposed. It has potential to overcome the lack of a general measurement theory for the science of comparative cognition, and the lack of domain-general mechanisms for evolutionary psychologists. The hierarchical complexity of concepts and debates as well as the new theory are scored, and demonstrate the postformal hierarchical complexity of the proposed theory.

POSTFORMAL RESISTANCE TO CONCEPTS OF "HIGHER" DEVELOPMENT

It is recommended to acknowledge and attribute normalcy to a range of possible reactions to concepts surrounding stages of development, particularly “higher” ones. Neutral, negative, and positive reactions have origins that differ considerably by stage of hierarchical complexity. Reactions of resistance require analysis because resistance is a source of misunderstanding or conflict. Using hierarchical complexity concepts and scoring to analyze these reactions demonstrates that people using postformal thought at stages 11 and 12 may seem to resist the very concepts that explain their complex thought. Analyses indicate resistance is directed at misunderstood or sometimes-conflated elements, rather than developmental concepts themselves.