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Every year, companies spend billions of dollars on training programs and management consultants, searching for ways to improve. But it's mostly all talk and no action, according to Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton, authors of The Knowing-Doing Gap. "Did you ever wonder why so much education and training, management consultation, organizational research and so many books and articles produce so few changes in actual management practice?" ask Stanford University professors Pfeffer and Sutton. "We wondered, too, and so we embarked on a quest to explore one of the great mysteries in organizational management: why knowledge of what needs to be done frequently fails to result in action or behavior consistent with that knowledge." The authors describe the most common obstacles to action---such as fear and inertia---and profile successful companies that overcome them.
Among the companies that Pfeffer and Sutton say do it right: General Electric, the Men's Wearhouse, SAS Institute, Southwest Airlines, Toyota, and British Petroleum. The book, based on four years of research, is broken into chapters with titles such as "When Talk Substitutes for Action," "When Fear Prevents Acting on Knowledge," "When Internal Competition Turns Friends into Enemies," and "Turning Knowledge into Action." Each chapter contains tips on what to do and what to avoid, and provides examples of how a lethargic company culture can be transformed. The Knowing-Doing Gap is a useful how-to guide for managers looking to make changes. Yet, as Pfeffer and Sutton point out, it takes more than reading their book or discussing their recommendations. It takes action. --Dan Ring
Book Description
The market for business knowledge is booming, as companies looking to improve their performance pour billions of dollars into training programs, consultants, and executive education. Why, then, are there so many gaps between what firms know they should do and what they actually do? Why do so many companies fail to implement the experience and insight they've worked so hard to acquire?
The Knowing-Doing Gap is the first book to confront the challenge of turning knowledge about how to improve performance into actions that produce measurable results.
Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, well-known authors and teachers, identify the causes of the knowing-doing gap and explain how to close it. The message is clear-firms that turn knowledge into action avoid the "smart talk trap." Executives must use plans, analysis, meetings, and presentations to inspire deeds, not as substitutes for action. Companies that act on their knowledge also eliminate fear, abolish destructive internal competition, measure what matters, and promote leaders who understand the work people do in their firms. The authors use examples from dozens of firms that show how some overcome the knowing-doing gap, why others try but fail, and how still others avoid the gap in the first place.
The Knowing-Doing Gap is sure to resonate with executives everywhere who struggle daily to make their firms both know and do what they know. It is a refreshingly candid, useful, and realistic guide for improving performance in today's business.
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Why are there so many gaps between what firms know they should do and what they actually do? Why do so many companies fail to implement the experience and insight they've worked so hard to acquire? The Knowing-Doing Gap is the first book to confront the challenge of turning knowledge about how to improve performance into actions that produce measurable results. Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, well-known authors and teachers, identify the causes of the knowing-doing gap and explain how to close it. The message is clear--firms that turn knowledge into action avoid the "smart talk trap." Executives must use plans, analysis, meetings, and presentations to inspire deeds, not as substitutes for action. Companies that act on their knowledge also eliminate fear, abolish destructive internal competition, measure what matters, and promote leaders who understand the work people do in their firms. The authors use examples from dozens of firms that show how some overcome the knowing-doing gap, why others try but fail, and how still others avoid the gap in the first place. The Knowing-Doing Gap is sure to resonate with executives everywhere who struggle daily to make their firms both know and do what they know. It is a refreshingly candid, useful, and realistic guide for improving performance in today's business.
Customer Reviews:
This book Is The Best of The Best!.......2007-07-26
This book hits the nail on the head. It's straight forward, easy to read format makes it a must read for every business leader who wants to get out from under knowing what to do and move to DOING the things that need to be done to move their organization forward!
Effectiveness, honesty, simplicity.......2006-10-24
Certainly in modern hi-tech work people need to be skilled, and know how to do their work well. But with all that knowledge, and people and systems concerned with knowledge management (and management in general), one may wonder at times why more work doesn't get done sooner. The authors of The Knowing-Doing Gap address this question. If you see parts of yourself or your work environment in these examples, it may be time to discuss it with others so you can get more work done with what you know already.
Overcoming Inertia - Uniting New Knowledge with Action.......2005-11-08
Two stellar professors use their experience and research to address the problem of organizational inertia in spite of our wide-spread and prevailing knowledge.
The premise is that a gap exists between our knowledge and the application of that knowledge in business... and that it can be closed. It cites that every year 1,700 business books are published, 60 billion dollars spent on training, 443 billion dollars spent on consulting and 80,000 new MBAs hit the business landscape... and still businesses are failing to apply the latest well-known and most viable principles and practices.
The authors break down the causes of this gap into five main reasons. After backing-up each reason with facts and examples, direct solutions are given to its remedy. Eight guidelines for action are then presented to fix this problem in your company. Case studies of business that have made huge turn-arounds using this appoach really amplify the authors' message.
This book is a great guide and loaded with ideas to getting the ball rolling in your business, non-profit organization... and dare I stretch to say your personal affairs. Knowing what to do, by itself is not enough... in businesses, churches or homes.
Application of this book's guidelines will make all of your other books, training, consulting, and manpower pay off. The tendency to just 'intellectualize' this information will be offset by your exposure to the real reasons knowledge hasn't lead to action in your experience. At least, that is the goal!
Five Stars
Packed with Knowledge!.......2005-06-20
Comedian Bill Cosby once sang a metaphorical ditty about a man who sat on the railroad tracks each day, only to be hit by a train. He knew when the train was coming, but he just couldn't apply that knowledge to get out of the way. That circumstance will sound hauntingly familiar to corporate consultants. Consider the experience of two consultants conducting deregulation research for a Latin American utility company. They stumbled over an excellent 500-page report completed years previously by a prior consultant. The document had all the information and analysis the company was seeking, but it had never been utilized. Authors Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton expose the alarming gap between what senior managers know and what they actually implement. After four years of intensive research into this issue, they uncover valuable lessons on how to make sure your organization doesn't talk itself to death. Today's companies are struggling to overcome inertia and become more nimble. That's why we strongly recommend this book for managers at every level; if nothing else, you'll know what you ought to be doing.
Knowledge alone is a watseful Investment .......2004-10-10
The only book on the very important subject I know off. The authors share their views on the their a well researched topic.
The key issues in Knowing Doing gap are 1. Top management 2. The culture 3. Aura of being knowledgable 4. Focus on sounding great with less emphasis on performance 5. Faulty Measurements 6. Fear.
They also cite exeample of companies that have less of this gap by focussing on simplicity, communcation that is imlementation oriented, simple plans that work rather than complex issues such as balance score cards. They indirectly bring out the fact that Top management gap in understanding of the ground realities, has a direct bearing on knowing doing gap.
Going by their own emphasis to help readers in reducing the knowing doing gap, they could have reduced the descriptive nature of the book. They could have inserted an overview chart, showing the various symptoms of knowing doing gap in one column, ccauses, remedies, good co examples in another column. Subsequesnt revisions of this book may consider this feedback.
Book Description
Must reading for academics and executives alike. Leading business scholar Chris Argyris helps readers understand why individuals and organizations are unable to learn from their action, then presents the steps that must be taken to change.
Customer Reviews:
Another attempt for racionality behind human behavior.......2000-12-11
I must confess I do not have psychological background. From my humble point of view, all books like this, look at "the good and rational background" of people. They have the premise that all the staff is doing their best but "strange forces" makes them not to get the optimum for the organization. So, the goal is overcoming those refraining forces. I do believe that behavior of people is headed for their own rational interest which is not always the best for the company. In adition, we are looking for rationality in behavior which is only part of the truth. Is not envy, jealousy, narrow-minded, stuborness and so on, part of human being behavior?. without them, we only have part of the great picture and so, remedies will not work properly. Apart from that, the book is well organized and explains clearly the models the author is working with and the methodology used. Premises are strong and goals interested which lead to good results (provided human being were not as they are).
The one book to read on ending office politices.......1997-07-01
Argyris cuts to the heart of why organizations go wrong with a combination of passion and precision. Several authors who have written about effective teams and organizations such as Peter Senge and Gerald (Jerry) Weinberg regard Argyris's work quite highly, and rightly so. While other authors talk about and round the problems and issues, Argyris creates models which show not just what people do, but how they think. Other books in the field of Organizational Design that I have looked at appear dry as dust next to Argris.
Readers should be cautioned, however, that Argyris is a academic and researcher -- reading his books requires work, but work well worth the effort.
- Cortlandt Wilson, Software Consultan
Book Description
"This valuable edited volume provides the foundations of empowerment evaluation by outlining its philosophy, theoretical frameworks, useful tools, basic steps, and lessons learned." --The Evaluation Exchange Short version of copy This outstanding group of evaluators from academia, government, nonprofits, and foundations explores empowerment evaluation, a method for using evaluation concepts, techniques, and findings to foster improvement and self-determination. Empowerment Evaluation begins with an in-depth examination of this type of evaluation as it has been adopted in academic and foundation settings. The book then highlights the role empowerment evaluation has played in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' substance abuse prevention programs. The contributors also provide down-to-earth tools and technical assistance needed to conduct empowerment evaluation. This volume concludes with themes that emerge from the chapters and recommendations concerning next steps. This serves to strengthen the links between empowerment evaluation and community capacity building. Long version of copy This outstanding group of evaluators from academia, government, nonprofits, and foundations explores empowerment evaluation, a method for using evaluation concepts, techniques, and findings to foster improvement and self-determination. Empowerment Evaluation begins with an in-depth examination of this type of evaluation as it has been adopted in academic and foundation settings. The book then focuses on the various contexts in which empowerment evaluation is conducted, ranging from resistant environments (in which significant effort is required to move from passive-compliance orientations) to responsive environments (that already have a tradition of self-determination and community organizing). Interesting highlights concerning the role empowerment evaluation has played in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' substance abuse prevention programs are detailed throughout the book. The contributors also provide down-to-earth tools and technical assistance needed to conduct empowerment evaluation. This volume concludes with themes that emerge from the chapters and recommendations concerning next steps. This serves to strengthen the links between empowerment evaluation and community capacity building. Empowerment Evaluation is of special interest to students and professionals in evaluation, research methods, education, sociology, psychology, marketing, educational administration, management, public health and substance abuse. This book gives readers down-to-earth tools and the technical assistance needed to conduct empowerment evaluation.
Book Description
"Perception is not something that happens to us, or in us," writes Alva Noë. "It is something we do." In Action in Perception, Noë argues that perception and perceptual consciousness depend on capacities for action and thought -- that perception is a kind of thoughtful activity. Touch, not vision, should be our model for perception. Perception is not a process in the brain, but a kind of skillful activity of the body as a whole. We enact our perceptual experience.
To perceive, according to this enactive approach to perception, is not merely to have sensations; it is to have sensations that we understand. In Action in Perception, Noë investigates the forms this understanding can take. He begins by arguing, on both phenomenological and empirical grounds, that the content of perception is not like the content of a picture; the world is not given to consciousness all at once but is gained gradually by active inquiry and exploration. Noë then argues that perceptual experience acquires content thanks to our possession and exercise of practical bodily knowledge, and examines, among other topics, the problems posed by spatial content and the experience of color. He considers the perspectival aspect of the representational content of experience and assesses the place of thought and understanding in experience. Finally, he explores the implications of the enactive approach for our understanding of the neuroscience of perception.
Customer Reviews:
Perception as skillful act.......2006-12-29
To perceive, according to Nöe, is to understand the relation between our sensory data and bodily skills. To perceive an object in the world, say a cube, we must possess knowledge of how our visual input would change were we to move in relation to the object, and sense-data without such sensory-motor knowledge is blind (or, at the least, not compatible with our phenomenological experience of the world). In this way, our perception is fundamentally and inseparably tied to our embodiment. Although a controversial claim, Nöe makes the case with care and rigor, drawing on neurological evidence for experiential blindness and addressing likely and stated objections from philosophy.
The book is written in a manner that non-philosophers will grasp its main arguments, though philosophers and cognitive scientists concerned with understanding the nature of experience are the intended audience. The only criticism I find is that it does not attempt an account of how its ideas can be captured in a computational framework, though I suspect cognitive modelers will follow in the path set out by this book.
A book with information known for thousands of years, but not by everybody........2006-01-23
Action in Perception is a book that points out a way of thinking that was developed not recently, but rather thousands of years ago. While many have tried to describe it by calling it " feeling spiritual energy flow through you," the concept itself of doing actions in order to expand your perceptions is something found in the Ancient customs of Martial Arts.
Many Martial Artists may not know this, but the "forms" they do in the western world are not just for "perfection of movement." This is an impossibly, and is not it's true purpose. Rather, the forms are to have the person "feel" their bodie's movement. Overtime, they slowly take away other perception, while told to repetitiously do the same movements, until they can do them perfectly without the usage of sight, sound, taste, and smell. Only their skin detects everybody; the small electrical currents and vibrations given off by the other person.
This is only a surface of what was developed over the perception ideal within eastern culture. When it was brought to the west, these secrets were lost to many, covered in the honor traditions and other stuff that really mean little. But This book shows this way of thought in a western description, and that is why it may help others understand this knowledge once again, in a languege they can understand.
A new movement in perception.......2005-11-18
"Noë provides a persuasive account of the "enactive" approach to perception, according to which perception is not simply based on the processing of sensory information, or on the construction of internal representations, but is fundamentally shaped by the motor possibilities of the perceiving body. ... Noë puts the brain back into the body, and the body back into the world. ... The action, for enactive theorists, is not in the brain; it is the organism as a whole acting in the environment that must be treated as the site of perception. ... After reading
Noë, any account of perception purely in terms of brain representations seems rather washed out." (Shaun Gallagher, Times Literary Supplement).
A new paradigm.......2005-05-17
Finally, after all these years, we're starting to unlearn duality. There aren't two planes of reality, the physical and the mental. There are not two regions of the cosmos, the heavenly and the terrestrial. There isn't me over here, and the world over there. There's only the world, which happens to include me: the real world, the only one there is. It's where we live. The 21st century is the perfect date to begin exploring our new (same old, beautiful) world. These are a few of the rapturous thoughts this book evokes in your present reviewer. 'Action in Perception' is really fun, really smart, and really deep. It's about a completely new way to think about what perception is. Noe suggests that we don't perceive IN ORDER to move around in the world; perception just IS moving around in the world. One of his many beautiful examples goes like this (I paraphrase). Here are two trees, one closer to me, one farther. I experience them as more or less the same height. But WHY would I experience it this way, given that the closer tree takes up so much more of my visual field than the far one? Answer: The far tree doesn't look as tall as the near tree IN SPITE OF the fact that it crosses a smaller part of my visual field -- it looks as tall as the near tree BECAUSE it crosses a smaller part of my visual field, and this is just what I would expect, having experienced HOW the "apparent" sizes of things tend to CHANGE as I move through the world. The structure of the world is not stored in a 3D model in my brain -- why would I need such a model, when the world itself is out there for me to look at whenever I want to? -- what I hold onto (or, in some cases, am born with) are what might be called physical heuristics: patterns of how the shapes around me tend to change as I move. I believe this table to be rectangular not DESPITE the fact that its "apparent" shape changes as I walk around it, but BECAUSE its "apparent" shape changes as I walk around it -- in a specific pattern with which I am familiar. That pattern of geometric transformations is how I RECOGNIZE a rectangular surface. I'm probably not conveying these examples very well, but if the ideas I've been babbling about here sound at all intriguing to you, you will enjoy this book tremendously.
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Knowledge in Action, The Bata System of Management
Manufacturer: IOS Press
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Book Description
The Bata system of management is a testimony to the understanding that capital is knowledge and not money, buildings or technology: 'Buildings - they are just piles of brick and concrete. Machines - they are a lot of iron and steel. Only people can give life to it all.' This book represents a major contribution from Czechoslovakia to the general theory and practice of management. Tomas Bata was not only a pioneer in the modern production and marketing of footwear, but more importantly in the development and business implementation of what in the business world of today is known as organizational behaviour. The work will be of great interest to managers, business administrators, engineers and researchers and students of economics, business administration and sociology.
Customer Reviews:
The Shaver Stories Plus New Age History.......2006-05-02
I purchased "Lost Continents & The Hollow Earth" by David Hatcher Childress & Richard Shaver because I was interested in reading the two Mutan Mion stories by Richard Shaver which are included. Although originally published in "Amazing Stories" (a fiction magazine), the author insisted that the stories were true, and many readers wrote in with their own experiences with beings from inside the Earth.
The first story in this book and the series is "I Remember Lemuria", a novella which was first published in "Amazing Stories" in March of 1945. In this story we are introduced to Mutan Mion (the Atlan whose memories Richard Shaver claims to have) who discovers that Mu (Earth) is being controlled by deros (detrimental energy robots). The story takes place in the far past, and uses myths such as Atlantis and the Titans in its subject matter. The story would fall into the category Space Opera, so if you enjoy that subgenre you may be interested in reading it. If one were to rate this story based on the impact it had at the time, it would have to get five stars, but in reading it now I would only give it three. It is difficult to understand how anyone would take it to be real, and there are much better Space Opera stories out there, such as the Lensman series by Dr. Edward E. Smith.
The second story is "The Return of Sathanas", which was first published in "Amazing Stories" in November of 1946 as a novel. However, it only runs about 100 pages, so it is really a novella size story. This is another of the Mutan Mion stories, and in this one he is in pursuit of Sathanas, a dero, and chases him back to Mu. This story brings some of the Norse mythology into play, but overall the story is nothing special. This story rates two stars by itself. This story was co-authored by Bob McKenna, but he is not credited in this text.
Also included in this book is the foreword to the 1948 book which contained both of these stories, and there is also an introduction (by David Hatcher Childress), a copy of the Shaver Alphabet, and a short piece called "The Shaver Mystery" (also by David Hatcher Childress) which talks about the controversial stories and their impact.
The rest of the book includes four short pieces by David Hatcher Childress which deal with "new age" theories about technologically advanced ancient civilizations which may have lived in the "Hollow Earth" or at least used vast networks of tunnels under the continents. While these are entertaining to read, they are not very good science as Childress will often describes how a source is discredited for certain reasons, and yet he continues to use some of their ideas as sources to support the existence of these ancient civilizations.
At this time, this book is the only place where one can find any of the Shaver stories, and so for that reason it might be of interest to some people. As a source of information about ancient civilizations it is entertaining, but much of it is based on questionable sources and it should not be taken as fact.
Not so great.......2005-04-25
This book didn't turn out to be as interesting as I thought it would be. He reprints the entire 1948 book "I Remember Lemuria" by Richard Shaver. Which I found pretty boring. Childress' comments on the hollow earth were interesting though, but I wouldn't have bought the book for them.
If you're into the Occult Buy this book..........2003-10-05
I bought this book thinking it would be a good interesting read. It was for a couple chapters and I couldnt finish it for fear of being ill. He basically borrows theories and other tidbits from other books by Occult authors. It talks about "The Great White Brotherhood" but doesnt mention that this Brotherhood is the top echelon of the Illuminati Occultists who rule this world. The first story was good because it shows what mind control can do to a person and reminds me of what Philip K Dick once went through. This book has limited documentation if any and no definitive answers and just mystery and doesn't resolve much. If you want a good read with documentation pick up "Bloodlines Of The Illuminati" by Fritz Springmeier. Its probably the most amazing book you will ever read!
Some interesting stuff at the end.......2001-02-07
The book is split into 3 parts: two sci-fi stories from Richard Shaver's Lumeria series and three chapters on hollow earth history. The stories are stupid and boring. The only reason you would want to read them is if you were into Sci-Fi history. I couldn't even finish the Return of Santhas. The last three chapters on hollow earth history were quite interesting though. They follow some quack and some reasonable theories about tunnels in South America and Asia. He does a good recap of the Incan/Spanish conflict that led to the theories on lost cities of Gold. So parts 1&2 (no stars), part 3 (4 stars)
lost continents and the hollow earth.......2000-04-21
david hatcher childress has presented one of the best reads on this subject! excellent illustrations great layout and even if you dont believe this it's a great science fiction read to say the least!
Customer Reviews:
Super for teachers!.......2000-10-18
I read this book in graduate school. Marilyn Cochran-Smith gives excellent examples of teachers researching their own classrooms and practices in order to improve their teaching. I enjoy the original sources used in the text. It's a great resource for teachers looking for answers to questions about their individual practice. I've used strategies in the book on many occassions to improve my work as an elementary teacher.
Book Description
Over the past 25 years, the intersection of developmental psychology and public policy has become an increasingly active and important domain for researchers, policymakers, children's rights advocates, and practitioners. At the forefront of the child development research and social policy movement is Edward Zigler, whose "knowledge for action" approach has revolutionized the way public policy is enacted to better serve vulnerable youth populations. Child Development and Social Policy: Knowledge for Action expands on Dr. Zigler's work in integrating the fields of child development and social policy, while using scientific knowledge for action as the model. Contributors discuss these key questions: What are the most powerful research insights of the last 30 years that promote effective action for children and families? What are the most powerful constraints or limits of our knowledge base to promote effective action for children and families? What are the primary components of short-term research agenda to make the most powerful difference for children and families? This edited volume focuses on both the influence of social policy on children's development and the unique perspective, insight, and skills that developmentalists bring to this policy and its formation. Programs to ensure good beginnings for all children are discussed, while the needs of those who are most vulnerable are also addressed. The volume celebrates the life and scholarship of Edward F. Zigler, founder of the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy and administrator of the Head Start program in Washington, DC. Dr. Zigler is both a pioneer and a leader in conducting rigorous, high-quality developmental and policy-relevant psychological research and has dedicated his work to improving the lives of American children and their families through informed social policy. His scholarly work spans the fields of cognitive and social-emotional competence of young children, mental retardation, psychopathology, intervention programs for economically disadvantaged children, and the effects of out-of-home care on the children of working parents.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book on the "Mary Celeste"........2006-08-26
This is an excellent telling of the mystery of the "Mary Celeste. Mr. Begg does not attempt to solve the mystery of the ship's abandonment; there was very probably a very mundane reason that the "Mary Celeste" was abandoned, but as nobody survived, we will never know why.
Minor points of criticism:
In the chapter on other mysteriously abandoned ships, the author does not mention the Pacific Ocean's equivalent, the "Joyita" in late 1955.
The dust jacket picture (which the author probably had nothing to do with). It shows a four-masted square-rigged ship. The "Mary Celeste" had two masts. The foremast was square-rigged, and the mainmast was lateen-rigged.
Book Description
How can science be brought to connect with experience? This book addresses two of the most challenging problems facing contemporary neurobiology and cognitive science: first, understanding how we unconsciously execute habitual actions as a result of neurological and cognitive processes that are not formal actions of conscious judgment but part of a habitual nexus of systematic self-organization; second, creating an ethics adequate to our present awareness that there is no such thing as a transcendental self, a stable subject, or a soul.
In earlier modes of cognitive science, cognition was conceptualized according to a model of representation and abstract reasoning. In the realm of ethics, this corresponded to the philosophical tenet that to do what is ethical is to do what corresponds to an abstract set of rules. By contrast to this computationalism, the author places central emphasis on what he terms “enaction”—cognition as the ability to negotiate embodied, everyday living in a world that is inseparable from our sensory-motor capacities.
Apart from his researches in cognitive science, the bodies of thought that enable Varela to make this link are phenomenology and two representatives of what he calls the “wisdom traditions”: Confucian ethics and Buddhist epistemology. From the Confucian tradition, he draws upon the Mencius to propose an ethics of praxis, one in which ethical action is conceived as a project of being rather than as a system of judgment, less a matter of rules that are universally applicable than a goal of expertise, sagehood.
The Buddhist contribution to his project encompasses “the embodiment of the void” and the “pragmatics of a virtual self.” How does a belief system that does not posit a unitary self or subject conceive the living of an “I”? In summation, the author proposes an ethics founded on “savoir faire” that is a practice of transformation based on a constant recognition of the “virtual” nature of ourselves in the actual operations of our mental lives.
Customer Reviews:
A Jewel by a Giant.......2004-01-03
This is an astonishing book, for its brevity, readability, depth, and importance for our time. In the short space of only 75 pages, Varela turns on its head most of today's common sense about where ethical behavior comes from, how we prepare for ethical action, and how wise and ethical people learn to be that way.
The exploration Varela reports in the three lectures reproduced here are based on recent biological evidence. In this regard, he speaks not as writer, journalist, or gifted amateur, but as one of the leading authorities on the science of mind in the world - a giant. For those who may be tempted to ignore this book because of another reviewer's dismissive comments, I recommend a quick visit, through Google, to one of the many web sites that speak of his education, accomplishments, and world-wide reputation. Try: http://www.enolagaia.com/Varela.html#Bib.
In the second major inquiry that the book reports, Varela takes his question about ethical behavior from an inquiry into scientific and Western Philosophical traditions and connects them to an informed examination of Eastern Wisdom traditions. He is an authority there as well, a practicing Buddhist for many years, and also for many years one of the chief scientific advisors to the Dali Lama.
Varela is better known for two other important contributions - as co-author with Humberto Maturana of the ground-breaking Tree of Knowledge, in which they construct a radically new interpretation of biology that makes sense of language and cognition as biological, not metaphysical phenomena, and as the lead co-author of The Embodied Mind, in which the authors offer a new foundation for studies of the mind. The lectures offered here do not go over the same ground as the two other books, although Varela is standing on what he did before. This book is asking more sweeping questions about the construction of the human condition than did the others.
I give this elegant little book my very highest recommendation.
Virtue embodied in the whole person.......2003-01-28
Varela's 3 chapters are a clear, direct read on a philosophy of virtuous human development, apparently well-translated from the Italian lectures (from a Chilean thinker). I'm compelled to review because of the unfair treatment by another reviewer, who criticizes Varela not on the originality of his message, but on two points of his background. To rebut 1) Varela's depth and publication in biological cognition is well-regarded in both hard science and philosophy - and even then he can't be expected to know of every source in other disciplines (e.g., Rosen). 2) His experience with spiritual practice, as revealed in lecture, is not for anyone to judge - (which, by the way, he acknowledges tribute to his teacher C. Trungpa.) And finally (3) for he should not be expected to reveal such references in a time-bound lecture, and
Varela's mastery is in the simplicity of the message - in under 100 pages of clear analysis he challenges us both to understand the biological foundations of virtuous behavior and the development of ethical cognition. One sees in his view the possibility of self-awareness of ethical motivation, leading to an ethical consciousness. In a complex world of continual emergent choices and uncertain outcomes, a new type of conscience may be required. Varela points out such a path through both Western and Eastern perspectives - in non-academic terms.
Interesting commentary..........2002-09-20
This slim volume is a collection of Varela's lectures where he attempted to expand his philosophy of self-organization and cognition, detailed in "The Tree of Knowledge", by exploring its similarity with other traditions. He also expanded on some of the more pragmatic questions about 'how' it might work to logical conclusions. This book definitely assumes that the reader has some background knowledge and I would suggest the previously-mentioned work as the best place to start.
There are some interesting aspects to the lectures, particularly when Varela attempted to show similarities between his theories and some of the Eastern "wisdom traditions", notably Buddhism. However, it seems obvious that Varela became infatuated with aspects of his philosophy and then ended up in a rather untenable state by taking it to its logical conclusion.
Varela, unfortunately, seems to have been unaware of Rosen's work on anticipatory systems. I say this since anticipatory systems would appear to be what Varela's theory is all about and would provide some level of conceptualization beyond mere words. On a deeper level, Varela has a certain "stink of Zen" to his work - it is apparent that he has an intellectual's view of Buddhism and not one of experience.
Varela simply becomes caught by the very web he has been trying to avoid - he ends up 'anchoring' experience back on the shaky foundation of empty concepts. It is too bad he never spent time actually practicing something like Zen or read further afield. In the end the book is interesting as a footnote to a small step in the right direction but that is all.
I would recommend someone interested in this topic to find Rosen's books and Ekdahl's latest papers where he combines anticipation with the concept of pure induction.
Books:
- The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action
- The Last Remaining Seats: Movie Palaces in Tinseltown
- The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success
- The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States
- The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development, Second Edition
- The Sixty-Second Motivator
- The Stag Hunt and the Evolution of Social Structure
- The Stones of Venice (The Complete Works of John Ruskin - Volume 9)
- The Strategic Management of Intellectual Capital and Organizational Knowledge
- The Whole Brain Business Book
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Memories of Drop City: The first hippie commune of the 1960's and the Summer of Love
- History: Fiction or Science
- Bioceramics, Volume 8
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- History: Fiction or Science
- Fancy Mice
- Souvenir Buildings Miniature Monuments: From the Collection of Ace Architects
- Art of the Western World: From Ancient Greece to Post Modernism
- Animals Vol. 1: Los Animales
Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management
Weird Ideas That Work: How to Build a Creative Company
Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performances And Results from Knowledge Workers
The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First
Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't
