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This model helps us to switch our thinking from the mere correlation of statistics to the causality of reality, experiential reality. This allows us to accurately predict results with real world individual phenomena.
Briefly, there are only 2 simple ideas necessary to understand this model: Necessary & Sufficient.
Necessary are those causes that are absolutely necessary for something to come into existence or continue to exist.
Sufficient, simply saves us a lot of work. Once we've figured out what's sufficient we can stop worring about all the extras we may have added on, they're not needed!
| Aristotle's 4 | ||
| Name | House Example | Type |
| Material | Lumber | Parts |
| Operational | Carpenters | Skills |
| Formal | Blueprint | Organization |
| Final | Desire | Intent |
| My 5th | ||
| Experiential | Zoning Rules | Contexts |
I'll start with Aristotle's model from 2,000 years ago. He only had 4 causes and I'll show why a fifth was 'Necessary' for our real, experiential world.
For Aristotle, the abstract idea was the prime objective, and individual realities were but poor copies of his ideal ideas. For me the exact opposite is true. I care about individuals. My relatives and friends are more important to me than his ideal ideas. Indeed I see ideas as simply tools to make individual lives better. In response, I created the 5th Necessary and Sufficient Cause - Context!
Since this distinction between 'Ideal' and 'Real' worlds is fundamental to almost all of my ideas, here's some extra pointers to it's explanation:
Personal and Experiential Worlds
and
World Views blog entry
Let's start with Aristotle's 4 Causes and use the example of a house, since most of us live in some type of house. In order for a house to come to exist, there are at least 4 necessary 'Causes'.
Now if you're building that house in your mind, which is where Aristotle mostly lived, that's all you need! But I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. There you needed a building permit! Also a plumbing permit, and electrical permit, water & sewer permissions, etc., etc., etc. When I built my first house in Downingtown, Pennsylvania I only needed a building permit and an electrical permit. In addition, I had to keep the water pump at least 100 feet from the sewerage system, which was also common sense. In the early settlement days the restrictions were more materials, you had to cut down trees, and protect against strong winds, Indians and local rodents.
All these special individual restrictions I call 'Contexts'. They limit, sometimes severely, what we can create at any one point in time. To create anything in our real, shared, experiential world we have to live within these many specific Contexts!
I first created this model while at St. John's University, around 1961. Over the last 40+ years, I've used it in many different applications and so I now have more examples. Also, when applying it in different areas, we tend to use different words. Remember it's the meanings, not the words that count, but a good choice of words makes it easier to apply the basic idea. Specific words allow us to 'think' within a certain context.
My Jargon Matrix:
| Domain | Parts | Skills | Organization | Intentions | Contexts |
| Houses | Lumber | Carpenters | Blueprint | Desire | Permits |
| Language | Words | Selecting | Syntax | Creating meaning | Many contexts |
| Knowledge | Distinctions | Learning | Connections | Meaning | Many... |
| Persons | Body | Emotions | Mind | Spirit | Relationships |
| Politics | Actions | Convincing | Promoting | Special Interests | World events |
| Economics | Transactions | Leveraging | Structures | Gain | Exchange |
A Note about my colors.
In a sense they are truly arbitrary, nothing profound. But I chose them mainly to make them easy to remember.
Second example:
Let's take a simple fire in a campfire or a fireplace as an additional example.
Details to follow...
The flip side, an extra benefit.
Because ALL 5 causes are necessary for something to come into existence, they are also necessary for that something to continue to exist. This is not as easy to see but can be very useful. Back to the house example, if the lumber rots away or is eaten by termites, the house might fall. Likewise for skillful maintenance and repairs, and conforming to changing zoning laws.
BUT
There are many thing we want to get rid of, such as diseases, crime, poverty, unnecessary violence, ignorance, flood damage, fire etc. Using this model opens up a whole new approach to these problems. Consider fire. It need a supply of oxygen and material to burn. By cutting a wide trench around a fire, we deprive it of burnable materials. Or, by smothering it with foam we cut off the needed oxygen and the fire goes out!
Behavioral example:
At the end of a talk I gave on thinking skills, specifically "Try to create the unwanted behavior", a woman said she had a 16 year old boy with several disturbing behaviors. She felt as parents they had done all they could to help. I gave her this challenge: Go home and with your husband, imagine the following fantasy. You actually want him to mis-behave the way he does. Also you have complete control of him - for 15 years, his food, exercise, friends, hobbies etc. How would you do it? The following week, she reported that with her husband they discovered many ways that they unwitting assisted his mis-behaviors. A year later she reported major positive changes in their entire family.
Potassium example:
Coming soon.
Caution:
In our real, shared, experiential worlds there is a significant issue with this 5 Necessary and Sufficient Causes Model. In the abstract conceptual world things are quite black & white, they either exist or they don't; they fit into a category or they don't. But in our real, shared, experiential worlds there are always degrees of presence. Try to buy some 'pure' copper, or gold, or lead, or even water or oxygen, it's almost impossible. All things in our experiential world are 'impure'; a given sample has more or less of the substance we want. So a critical issue with these 5 Necessary & Sufficient Causes is - How much of each is 'necessary & sufficient' to say - Yes it's present! Or if we are trying to eliminate something, - Yes, it's absent! When looking at these sometimes small differences, the relevant question is:
To address this real, experiential world issue, I created yet another Model.
See the exciting details at:
The Dynamic Thresholds or Relative Absolutes Model
Related pages:
Personal and Experiential Worlds
World Views blog entry
About the Founder
Bob's Blog
Feedback:
Certified RFR - Rat Free Research:
All my studies have been conducted with humans, by humans, and for humans.
No rats have ever been harmed or even inconvenienced.
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