Microscopic Thinking and Telescopic Thinking
A start on thinking about how to view teaching, learning, leadership and training
Microscopic Thinking
Microscopic thinking about learning improvement.
Microscopic thinking about learning improvement.
Telescopic Thinking
Telescopic thinking about learning improvement
Telescopic thinking about learning improvement
Inspired by the developing thinking of the amazing @olicav.
Here is his tweet announcing his 2023 ResearchEd talk (September 23). From Action Steps to Plays to Strategies. This really is so exciting.
I'm presenting on zooming in & out of teaching —exploring the granularity continuum in relation to instructional coaching at next month's researchED National Conference. Join me.
That GIF was the first few pages of a wonderful book, called Zoom, by Istvan Banyai. Come along to the session and see where it takes you. And get a concept or two along the way.
He goes on to add some of the background thinking that has inspired his thinking:
You might like the work of Douglas Harding, the man who introduced the notion, and practice, of being 'headless'. Lauded by CS Lewis and practiced by Susan Blackmore. Douglas explained that who you think you are depends on how far away you are looking.
Douglas was invited to a number of zen centres in Japan as his direct perception exercises intrigued them. It offered a near instant sense of a non-ego, non-identity experience. I did a number of workshops with him over the years. Look up headless.org
https://www.headless.org/
https://www.headless.org/douglas-harding.htm
Here is his tweet announcing his 2023 ResearchEd talk (September 23). From Action Steps to Plays to Strategies. This really is so exciting.
I'm presenting on zooming in & out of teaching —exploring the granularity continuum in relation to instructional coaching at next month's researchED National Conference. Join me.
That GIF was the first few pages of a wonderful book, called Zoom, by Istvan Banyai. Come along to the session and see where it takes you. And get a concept or two along the way.
He goes on to add some of the background thinking that has inspired his thinking:
You might like the work of Douglas Harding, the man who introduced the notion, and practice, of being 'headless'. Lauded by CS Lewis and practiced by Susan Blackmore. Douglas explained that who you think you are depends on how far away you are looking.
Douglas was invited to a number of zen centres in Japan as his direct perception exercises intrigued them. It offered a near instant sense of a non-ego, non-identity experience. I did a number of workshops with him over the years. Look up headless.org
https://www.headless.org/
https://www.headless.org/douglas-harding.htm
Key perspectives on the relationship between the concrete/particular and the abstract/universal
From an extended tweet post by the amazing Rod Naquin (@rodjnaquin)
This extended post forms a great basis for further exploration of this pedagogical area.
Note how Rod has used AI search (Claude 2) to produce this amazing summary. Shows the power of AI that then allows the individual (or collective) to go on a far deeper personal search for knowledge and understanding of the intellectual tradition).
Okay, here is Claude2’s integrated summary categorizing some of the key perspectives on the relationship between the concrete/particular and the abstract/universal:
The Priority of the Concrete:
Aristotle - knowledge begins with particular sensory experience
https://brill.com/display/book/9789004506077/BP000011.xml?language=en#:~:text=Aristotle%2C%20by%20contrast%2C%20thought%20that,systematic%20use%20of%20the%20senses.
- William James - emphasized concrete experience over abstract intellectualizing
- Edmund Husserl - focused on detailed description of concrete conscious experiences
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/husserl/
Wang Yangming - true knowledge comes from concrete investigation of things
https://iep.utm.edu/wangyang/
Ibn Tufail - abstraction arises naturally from concrete experience
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Tufayl
Averroes - physicians gain principles from particular concrete cases
Zen Buddhism - enlightenment comes from concrete mindfulness of particulars
The Priority of the Abstract:
Plato - ultimate truth resides in abstract ideals or forms
Immanuel Kant - perception is shaped by built-in abstract categories
G.W.F. Hegel - abstract concepts are incomplete until tested against concrete reality
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel-dialectics/
Concrete as Grounding and Corrective to Abstraction:
Hannah Arendt - political philosophy should be grounded in concrete human activities
Simone de Beauvoir - revealed limitations of male abstractions using concrete stories
Iris Murdoch - literature provides concrete depictions of morality
Martin Heidegger - philosophy goes astray when detached from concrete human existence
So in summary, we see diverse views that either emphasize beginning with and grounding in the concrete, or emphasize the primacy and creative power of abstraction, as well as perspectives that see the two as complementary in various ways.
Here are some thinkers and their perspectives on concrete vs. abstract and specific vs. general:
Aristotle believed that knowledge moves from the particular/concrete to the general/abstract. We gain knowledge through our senses by experiencing particular things, then we abstract general principles from those experiences.
Plato believed that ultimate truth resides in abstract ideals or forms. The physical world is an imperfect reflection of these abstract ideals. So for Plato, the abstract is more real than the concrete.
Immanuel Kant argued that human perception imposes certain abstract categories (like space, time, causality) on concrete experience. So the abstract shapes how we understand the concrete.
G.W.F. Hegel saw abstract and concrete as complementary parts of a dialectical process. Our abstract concepts are incomplete until tested against concrete realities, which then leads to new abstract concepts, and so on.
William James emphasized direct concrete experience over abstract intellectualizing. He was skeptical of broad abstract philosophical systems removed from concrete human experience.
Edmund Husserl's phenomenology focused on detailed concrete description of conscious experience, from which we can then abstract general essences.
Martin Heidegger believed that philosophy goes astray when it becomes too abstract and detached from concrete human existence in the world.
So in summary, there is a long-running philosophical tension between the abstract and concrete, the specific and the general. Different thinkers lean more one way or the other.
Absolutely, here are some additional perspectives from women thinkers and those outside the Western tradition:
Hannah Arendt believed political philosophy was often too abstract and needed to be grounded in the concrete activities of people living together. She focused on concrete political action.
Simone de Beauvoir used concrete stories and experiences of women to reveal the limitations of abstract philosophical claims about humanity made primarily by men.
Iris Murdoch believed novels and literature provided concrete depictions of morality in action that abstract ethics missed. She argued for ethics based on concrete particulars.
Wang Yangming, a Chinese Neo-Confucian, critiqued abstract universal principles and said true knowledge comes from investigating things concretely until one's mind and the world illuminate each other.
Ibn Tufail, an Islamic philosopher, used a fictional story about a feral child to show how abstract knowledge arises naturally through concrete experience.
Averroes, another Islamic thinker, examined how physicians gained concrete medical knowledge from particular cases that could then yield general principles.
Zen Buddhism emphasizes direct concrete experience and intuition over abstract philosophical speculation. Enlightenment comes from mindfulness of the particulars of the present.
So we see diverse perspectives emerging from different traditions, often united by grounding abstraction in the concrete, the universal in the particular. The concrete and abstract remain in dynamic tension.
From an extended tweet post by the amazing Rod Naquin (@rodjnaquin)
This extended post forms a great basis for further exploration of this pedagogical area.
Note how Rod has used AI search (Claude 2) to produce this amazing summary. Shows the power of AI that then allows the individual (or collective) to go on a far deeper personal search for knowledge and understanding of the intellectual tradition).
Okay, here is Claude2’s integrated summary categorizing some of the key perspectives on the relationship between the concrete/particular and the abstract/universal:
The Priority of the Concrete:
Aristotle - knowledge begins with particular sensory experience
https://brill.com/display/book/9789004506077/BP000011.xml?language=en#:~:text=Aristotle%2C%20by%20contrast%2C%20thought%20that,systematic%20use%20of%20the%20senses.
- William James - emphasized concrete experience over abstract intellectualizing
- Edmund Husserl - focused on detailed description of concrete conscious experiences
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/husserl/
Wang Yangming - true knowledge comes from concrete investigation of things
https://iep.utm.edu/wangyang/
Ibn Tufail - abstraction arises naturally from concrete experience
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Tufayl
Averroes - physicians gain principles from particular concrete cases
Zen Buddhism - enlightenment comes from concrete mindfulness of particulars
The Priority of the Abstract:
Plato - ultimate truth resides in abstract ideals or forms
Immanuel Kant - perception is shaped by built-in abstract categories
G.W.F. Hegel - abstract concepts are incomplete until tested against concrete reality
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hegel-dialectics/
Concrete as Grounding and Corrective to Abstraction:
Hannah Arendt - political philosophy should be grounded in concrete human activities
Simone de Beauvoir - revealed limitations of male abstractions using concrete stories
Iris Murdoch - literature provides concrete depictions of morality
Martin Heidegger - philosophy goes astray when detached from concrete human existence
So in summary, we see diverse views that either emphasize beginning with and grounding in the concrete, or emphasize the primacy and creative power of abstraction, as well as perspectives that see the two as complementary in various ways.
Here are some thinkers and their perspectives on concrete vs. abstract and specific vs. general:
Aristotle believed that knowledge moves from the particular/concrete to the general/abstract. We gain knowledge through our senses by experiencing particular things, then we abstract general principles from those experiences.
Plato believed that ultimate truth resides in abstract ideals or forms. The physical world is an imperfect reflection of these abstract ideals. So for Plato, the abstract is more real than the concrete.
Immanuel Kant argued that human perception imposes certain abstract categories (like space, time, causality) on concrete experience. So the abstract shapes how we understand the concrete.
G.W.F. Hegel saw abstract and concrete as complementary parts of a dialectical process. Our abstract concepts are incomplete until tested against concrete realities, which then leads to new abstract concepts, and so on.
William James emphasized direct concrete experience over abstract intellectualizing. He was skeptical of broad abstract philosophical systems removed from concrete human experience.
Edmund Husserl's phenomenology focused on detailed concrete description of conscious experience, from which we can then abstract general essences.
Martin Heidegger believed that philosophy goes astray when it becomes too abstract and detached from concrete human existence in the world.
So in summary, there is a long-running philosophical tension between the abstract and concrete, the specific and the general. Different thinkers lean more one way or the other.
Absolutely, here are some additional perspectives from women thinkers and those outside the Western tradition:
Hannah Arendt believed political philosophy was often too abstract and needed to be grounded in the concrete activities of people living together. She focused on concrete political action.
Simone de Beauvoir used concrete stories and experiences of women to reveal the limitations of abstract philosophical claims about humanity made primarily by men.
Iris Murdoch believed novels and literature provided concrete depictions of morality in action that abstract ethics missed. She argued for ethics based on concrete particulars.
Wang Yangming, a Chinese Neo-Confucian, critiqued abstract universal principles and said true knowledge comes from investigating things concretely until one's mind and the world illuminate each other.
Ibn Tufail, an Islamic philosopher, used a fictional story about a feral child to show how abstract knowledge arises naturally through concrete experience.
Averroes, another Islamic thinker, examined how physicians gained concrete medical knowledge from particular cases that could then yield general principles.
Zen Buddhism emphasizes direct concrete experience and intuition over abstract philosophical speculation. Enlightenment comes from mindfulness of the particulars of the present.
So we see diverse perspectives emerging from different traditions, often united by grounding abstraction in the concrete, the universal in the particular. The concrete and abstract remain in dynamic tension.
Aristotle
Knowledge begins with particular sensory experience
Knowledge begins with particular sensory experience
