This is http://www.essayz.com/a9304172.htm Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words. {Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.} ========================================================== %SCIENCE MEASURE COMPUTE PREDICT UNDERSTAND HISTORY 930417 Objective relationships between objects can be analyzed, understood, predicted, and and often manipulated with no more information than the objective facts about each object which is involved in the interaction: mass, charge, dipole strengths, shape, size, composition, initial positions, initial velocities, temperatures, etc. All of these aspects of the participant objects can be accurately characterized by quantitative measurements and computations. The histories of the objects usually need not be considered to understand objective interactions. Also the the following aspects of the participants need not be considered: desires, wants, needs, expectations, intentions, anticipations, values, ideals, hopes, fears, attitudes, perceptions, experiences, emotions, memories, plans, etc. In objective processes the sequence of interactions are simple and can be fully and accurately characterized by measurable characteristics which can be determined by observers who are not participants in the interactions. Observers play no central role in interactions which are objective in character, and observers can understand and predict the course of events of an objective process from positions which are far from the participants in an objective process; e.g., astronomers watching a distant planet and its moons, or even more distant stars and galaxies. Personal interactions cannot be meaningfully analyzed, understood, predicted, or manipulated using only quantitative information regarding the objective facts pertaining to each object which is involved in the interactions. When considering personal relationships the histories of the participants do need to be considered to understand their relationships. Also the the following aspects of the participants do need be considered: desires, wants, needs, expectations, intentions, anticipations, values, ideals, hopes, fears, attitudes, perceptions, experiences, emotions, memories, plans, etc. To ignore any of such aspects of the participants/relationships is to be unable to understand the relationships/participants. None of these aspects of the participants/relationships can be well characterized by quantitative measurements and/or computations. In intimate personal relationships the sequence of interactions are complex and can be meaningfully understood and appreciated only by participants in the relationships. Observers who play no central role in the relationships are relatively ignorant of the details and logic of the relationships, and cannot understand/predict the course of the relationship from positions which are far from the participants in the relationship; e.g., people falling in love. Objective relationships can be understood, predicted, and controlled by observers who focus their attention narrowly upon a limited number of measurable characteristics of the interacting pieces in the relationships. Such a narrow focus does not serve well for people who wish to understand intimate personal relationships wherein attention needs to be focused widely upon all of the participants, their life histories, and the histories of their communities of origin. Attention needs to be focused upon all of the following aspects of the members of the communities of origin: histories, memories, desires, wants, needs, expectations, intentions, anticipations, values, ideals, hopes, fears, attitudes, perceptions, experiences, emotions, plans, intimate personal relationships, etc. None of these can be adequately characterized by quantitative measurements or computations. In the study of objective relationships the people who carry out the study watch "from a distance" the behavior of a limited set of objects which participate in the relationships---so that the details of the relationships which are being studied are not affected in any significant way by the process of being studied. The larger the set of objects which are the focus of a study, the more difficult it is to carry out the study in an objective way---for the chances increase that the people who are participants in the study will either be included in the set of objects which are the focus of attention, or the participants in the study will see their future welfare as being affected by the outcome of the study. This is especially true when the study includes all objects in the solar system. When the future welfare of the participants in the study is likely to be affected by the study, then the study is no longer an objective study. This makes it difficult to carry out a truly objective study; for the funding of future objective studies is likely to depend upon the "success" of the present objective study. The "success" of the present study cannot be defined in terms of purely objective considerations; for "success" is a reflexive reality which is defined by members of a human community engaged in reflexive personal relationships. It is futile to try to divide all studies/relationships into two cleanly defined and separated classes: objective or non-objective. Such futile efforts are character-istically those of dichotomous thinkers who cannot comfortably deal with ambiguity, shades of gray, or the full range of the colors/wavelengths of light. They try to think exclusively in terms of yes/no, right/wrong, good/evil, objective/non- objective, friend/enemy, win/lose, cooperate/fight, perfect/imperfect. They cannot meaning-fully deal with reality and therefore try to replace reality with a collection of dichotomous splits. To deal meaningfully with our dilemmas, tragedies, personal relationships, reflexive realities, and objective problems that we need to be honest about the full range of the colorful palette of realities; and affirm in clear and emphatic public terms that many of them cannot be dealt with meaningfully in terms of dichotomous thinking of any kind. This means we need to develop the ability to recognize and describe the full colorful palette of relationships for which purely-objective relationships and purely-reflexive reflexive relationships are but extreme cases in a multi-dimensional space which includes much more than a straight line of points between the extreme cases. We thus need to learn how to describe openly and honestly all those characteristics and combinations of characteristics which differentiate between objective realities and reflexive realities. Only then will be be able to deal meaningfully with the full range of realities. (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================