Muddles and Metaphors: A Response to Keeney and Sprenkle

The Cybernetic Metaphor: A Critical Examination of Ecosystemic Epistemology as a Foundation of Family Therapy

“…Some of the most vehement criticism, in fact, has originated with those who possess a similar understanding of cybernetics and epistemology. Witness, for example, the response of Wilder (17): “What we seem to have here is an advanced case of the Ourobus Syndrome, a pathological metalogue in which the snake not only bites its own tail but also swallows it, hence disappearing into the infinite regress” (p. 400). Coyne, Denner, and Ransom (6) accuse Keeney and Allman of engaging in fashionable silly talk, of suspending reason while pouring out one dubious metaphoric expression after another.…”

Not Pragmatics, Not Aesthetics

“…A common denominator underlying the various MRI responses involves a sort of disgust for primary process computation. Wilder (22), for instance, fears that such “lofty notions as ‘sacramental experience’ and ‘ecological humility’” are a return to what she calls “the monadic mystifications of psychoanalysis” (p. 400). With less outrage, Coyne, Denner, and Ransom (6) are disturbed when words “float clear from stable referants” (p. 393).…”

The Poetic Mind: Further Thoughts on an “Aesthetic Preference”

“…Epistemological issues often invoke primordial responses by otherwise restrained people. The "either/or" tone of the responses (17,46,48) on both sides of the debate further reveals the pragmatic error that I referred to in my paper (2).…”