Coherence (Part 3 of 4): Drawing lines in the sand

COHERENCE (Part 3 of 4): DRAWING LINES IN THE SAND

Part 1 is available [here] and part 2 [here].

…Disclaimer: The depth and scale of Stephen Peppers work is in many ways an understanding of philosophy that is beyond my pay-grade and will likely take some time for me to fully appreciate. In what little I have been able to process, he has provided some significant insight into the coherence issues we are seeing in healthcare related to the topics of pain and movement in particular. For a more educated review, please see Hayes, Hayes, and Reeses book review of Pepper’s World Hypothesis work to explore this topic prior to my butchering and overly simplifying these worldviews [here].

Steven Peppers proposed the idea that the philosophical worldviews (Pepper describes these are world hypothesis) each of us hold can be looked upon like objects in our world. That these viewpoints can be described and compared to each other, and that through viewing them critically it is even possible to determine “relatively adequacy” in their scope and precision. A “Relatively adequate Hypothesis” is built on a root metaphor, which serves as a conceptualization which balances common sense with “refined knowledge”. An adequate world perspective should be “..unlimited (in) scope and is so precise that it permits one and only one interpretation of every event” (Hayes, et al. 1988), but as reviewed by Peppers, rarely do these viewpoints completely succeed and therefore, the “best” can only be considered “relatively adequate”. 

Peppers discusses several principles at the core of his world hypothesis and I could easily get distracted by describing all of them. However, his “Maxim number 3”, states that “eclecticism is confusing”, and this once again rang true for me in my own “yearning for coherence” and my observations of INCOHERENT ECLECTICISM. In this principle, Pepper states an adequate root metaphor (therefore world view) is autonomous, which means they are mutually exclusive, and to attempt to mix them with other viewpoints can only become confusing. Now, with that stated, Steven Hayes describes a powerful implementation of contextualism to incorporate other viewpoints but avoids the costs of conceptual confusion which we will discuss later.

Here is a A VERY Brief Summary of the ”Relatively Adequate” World Views

Formism

Commonly Called: Realism

Root Metaphor: Similarity

Formists like to organize and categorize things, they label the quality of things and relationships between things. Fruits are often sweet and can be organized relative to the type of fruit and trees or plants they come from. Principles of operation, such gravity/force, etc, are not important, only how things relate to each other in form matters.

Mechanism

Commonly Called: Naturalism, Materialism, and sometimes also Realism

Root Metaphor: The machine

Mechanists look at the entire universe as a machine. Parts and pieces have distinct roles which are systematically related in the machine and alter its function. Mechanism is similar to formism but discreet relationships between parts do allow operations to produce predictable outcomes. Emphasis on outcomes is a key component of this worldview as mechanism is essentially the root philosophical viewpoint of the biomedical model.

Organicism

Commonly Called: Absolute Idealism

Root Metaphor: Process of organic development and organic systems

Organicists look at the “Whole” as being the basic foundation, the whole is not made of parts or a synthesis, rather, they are meaningless except for when they are part of the process of the whole. An acorn is going to become a tree, unless of course the acorn is eaten by pig and then becomes a part of the pig. 

Contextualism

Commonly Called: Pragmatism

Root Metaphor: Ongoing act in context

Contextualists essentially look at “truths” varying within the context of which they are made, including the historical context.  Hayes describes the most powerful application of contextualism is that it “allows the strategic use of categorical concepts from other worldviews subordinated to contextualistic criteria”. What this means is that other viewpoints such as mechanism can be use toward a specific end. The machine metaphor can then be used toward “successful working” of the contextualists agenda if the context is defined. Similar to Steven Hayes’s perspective that contextualism is the most important viewpoint for which to look at behaviorism, we at Dynamic Principles see contextualism as the most practical lens in which to look at movement and pain. After all, when it comes to movement and pain, context is king.

So what now? Read next week’s blog post conclusion: “Coherence: Bringing worldviews into practice.”