Hi Jonathan,

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

-Chance

On Thu, Jan 9, 2020 at 5:35 PM Waldemar Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Welcome, Jonathan.
> Many thanks for the Perspective website!
>
> Best regards,
>
> Waldemar
>
> *Waldemar A Schmidt, PhD, MD*
> (Perseveret et Percipiunt)
> 503.631.8044
>
> *Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. (A Einstein)*
>
> On Jan 9, 2020, at 8:06 AM, Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> Hi TOK List,
>   I am forwarding you an exchange I have been having with Jonathan Rowson
> about the need to enhance our focus on concentration and the key aspects
> that define the emerging metamodern sensibility. I am also happy to say he
> just joined our list. He is a very impressive figure. A chess grandmaster,
> he now focuses on social and philosophical issues and is a major player in
> the metamodern movement. I was super impressed with Perspectiva, a research
> institute in London which is advancing a mission very similar to that of
> the TOK Society.
> See here: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.systems-2Dsouls-2Dsociety.com_&d=DwIFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=dKz8ufBLMpfcGPSwBKldPxUXF0SxYLN8Jtr49gPYohM&s=UP7gFnh7KC2kHEvQTRuohhBqbcOA_rfM51tBsSm_E5g&e=
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.systems-2Dsouls-2Dsociety.com_&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=4p2I1IuasZ2nowxJd_AlIviW7-qxvNLGjjerQkfqzbQ&s=F-uerJeLegOBA62Ri0lmMa7DF9cAJUkLfJVgGdpV0DM&e=>.
> He also recently authored an excellent book, The Moves that Matter: A Chess
> Grandmaster on the Game of Life (2019). Needless to say, I am thrilled he
> is joining us here.
>
> Best,
> Gregg
>
>
> *From:* Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx
> *Sent:* Thursday, January 9, 2020 7:16 AM
> *To:* 'Jonathan Rowson' <[log in to unmask]>
> *Cc:* New Metamodernism List <[log in to unmask]>
> *Subject:* RE: Concentration in Metamodernity.
>
> Thanks, Jonathan.
>
> I think your *last point is exactly on point and is one that we should
> concentrate on.* That is, I believe cultivating a “meta” via should be
> one of the central features of a metamodern sensibility. Indeed, this is
> the central theme I see running through the whole movement.
>
> Consider, for example, my own work. I did not know about metamodernism at
> all until last year. However, I instantly (a) grasped what it was getting
> at and (b) recognized my work to be part of this sensibility. Why?
> Precisely because it worked in the abstract space above the traditional
> paradigms. The approach and perspective I take is transcontextual and
> interdisciplinary.
>
> Attached is a chapter I authored in 2018, prior to being aware of
> metamodernism. No need to read it, but for a sense of the basic logic of
> what I am proposing, flip through to page 214 and take a look at the two
> continuums offered. The first shows normal (i.e., mainstream American)
> scientific psychology, which is that it enters the field at the level of
> the paradigm and then is anchored to a modernist approach to knowledge
> which is grounded in empirical research. The field of psychology also has
> the “critical theorists” and postmodernists who highlight the many
> paradigms and critique the value of anchoring knowledge to traditional,
> modernist empirical epistemology and who point out the influence of power
> and context on what knowledge gets taken as true. The debate between the
> two does a nice job of capturing the current state of affairs (i.e., it is
> awkwardly stuck between modernist and postmodernist sensibilities).
>
> The second continuum just beneath it depicts the focus of my work. The
> unified framework enters at the level of the paradigms (and modernist and
> postmodernist sensibilities) and it “zooms out” to the meta level to look
> beyond the paradigms and see their interrelation. The first chapter in my
> book, A New Unified Theory of Psychology is titled From Racing Horses to
> Seeing the Elephant. The “Elephant” was the metaphor by Saxe and referred
> to how the unified framework could serve as a metatheoretical integration
> for the major paradigms in the field. My current focus is on the
> descriptive metaphysical aspects, specifically, the unified field/framework
> for defining psychology and its key concepts, which are behavior, mind, and
> consciousness (both animal sentience and human self-conscious reflection).
>
>
> The current title for my book in progress is *A Metamodern Solution to
> the Problem of Psychology*. It is a metamodern project precisely because
> it moves the perspective beyond the modernist paradigms and the
> postmodernist critique of them and into a meta ontological/epistemological
> perspective that can embrace both pluralism (the postmodern view) and the
> concept of scientific accuracy (the modernist view).
>
> Bottom line is that I think you are exactly correct in your sense of the
> key expertise that grounds the metamodern sensibility—it is a
> transparadigmatic “integral-to-unified” view of the world.
>
> Best,
> Gregg
>
> *From:* Jonathan Rowson <[log in to unmask]>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, January 8, 2020 1:08 PM
> *To:* Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx <[log in to unmask]>
> *Cc:* New Metamodernism List <[log in to unmask]>
> *Subject:* Re: Concentration in Metamodernity.
>
> Thanks Gregg.
>
> Your response and article elicited a couple of sketchy thoughts:
>
> The first is that the 'figure/ground' reference in your piece is curiously
> moot in some ways (not so much in the way you use it) because part of what
> is happening with the so-called war on attention is, according to James
> Williams, that there is a figure/ground reversal going on, in which as
> information becomes overabundant, attention becomes increasingly scarce (in
> the distracted phenomenological and targeted economic senses). That's
> partly why (I think) I feel a reappraisal of concentration is needed, to
> increase our collective auto-telic capacity to *regenerate attention* in
> a time of information overload (this idea needs some refining!).
>
> The second is that I am familiar with the expertise material (I've been a
> guinea pig of sorts several times!..) and I think it's relevant to
> metamodernism in this sense: What kind of expertise might good metamodern
> thought entail? I suspect it's party about transcontextual awareness and
> interdisciplinary capacity - a kind of 'expert generalism'. Perhaps the
> capacity to hold multiple perspectives/ontologies/epistemologies and think
> with them is part of the expertise we need - something requiring
> significant concentration...
>
> Kids need feeding in London - I think pizza is the best I can do tonight.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Jonathan.
>
> On Wed, 8 Jan 2020 at 15:30, Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
> This was an excellent essay. Although not directly related, I thought I
> would share this piece I did on perception and perceptual illusions because
> at the end it offers a comment about the very different ways novice and
> advanced chess players actually “see” the board. It provides some
> interesting ways of thinking about the relationship between sensations,
> perceptions and higher cognitive schematics; that is, the relationship
> between bottom up and top down processing and its implications for both
> conscious experience and cognitive functionalism.
>
> Perception and Perceptual Illusions:
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.psychologytoday.com_us_blog_theory-2Dknowledge_201305_perception-2Dand-2Dperceptual-2Dillusions&d=DwIFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=dKz8ufBLMpfcGPSwBKldPxUXF0SxYLN8Jtr49gPYohM&s=SAIilfq1vCEj-YGNsDcrOo3MGdj1-RGF4ne6vHuhYdo&e=
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.psychologytoday.com_us_blog_theory-2Dknowledge_201305_perception-2Dand-2Dperceptual-2Dillusions&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=wjF8cZoiFchamTuxBdDEmw&m=0GG2l1Ccx0vPN4KkJZ4jr7XIyUQ6bkzqIgwvCNrtBOo&s=DiygB89PVKxs2_Ory3ue5KRE6syCelVBKt0LWjNa9aE&e=>
>
> Let me conclude by echoing support for Jonathan’s key point about the
> importance of concentration and focusing our mental energies with
> deliberate skill and competence.
>
> Best,
> Gregg
>
> *From:* [log in to unmask] <
> [log in to unmask]> *On Behalf Of *Jonathan Rowson
> *Sent:* Tuesday, January 7, 2020 4:41 PM
> *To:* New Metamodernism List <[log in to unmask]>
> *Subject:* Concentration in Metamodernity.
>
> Hi Everyone.
>
> I wrote an essay on concentration for Aeon magazine that might be of
> interest.
>
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__aeon.co_amp_essays_playing-2Dchess-2Dis-2Dan-2Dessential-2Dlife-2Dlesson-2Din-2Dconcentration&d=DwIFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=dKz8ufBLMpfcGPSwBKldPxUXF0SxYLN8Jtr49gPYohM&s=RRge_dL-ZjsEwoqkzGN3RwogakgRgNziPbQZKsS0mn4&e=
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__aeon.co_amp_essays_playing-2Dchess-2Dis-2Dan-2Dessential-2Dlife-2Dlesson-2Din-2Dconcentration&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=wjF8cZoiFchamTuxBdDEmw&m=KJ4aZErbAf4ZQ0mTKC4UohI93XmHkv-2Gd19HHAm1I0&s=JMwZsh_8WnuhRnRzxDpgRm-ZeChgVyOMTz0M4yKdR7g&e=>
>
> There is some personal context, but at a substantive level the essay makes
> three claims that might be of interest to this group.
>
> First, while I welcome recent interest in attention (the front line of the
> information ecology) I suggest that what we need to really ‘take back
> control’ of attention is concentration. By that I mean we need metacognitve
> contexts (Bonnie’s term) afforded by activities like chess (but almost any
> focal activity- Matthew Crawford’s term- will do) because we need to know
> attention from the inside-out both to value it properly and know what it is
> for,  and to develop immunities that limit the chances of it being
> hijacked, corrupted or manipulated.
>
> Second, I don’t make this explicit in the essay, but there’s something
> about the relationship between the kinds of mental and emotional complexity
> required to appreciate metamodern thought and the capacity for
> concentration that needs attending to. The sense that “we can’t have these
> kinds of complex conversations” in a public forum is related to our sense
> that concentration is a kind of strain of sustained focus that people are
> unwilling to engage in, rather than a grateful gathering and cleansing
> coalescence of the fissiparous self. What if the sine qua non of a
> metamodern enclave was communities that love to concentrate as a praxis?
>
> Third, there is something about the relationship between concentration and
> positive freedom that is not in the essay but is my book that could be
> further developed (chapter one is called ‘concentration is freedom’). It
> seems to me that most political visions have a notion of human freedom at
> their heart, and I guess I want to ask of any social arrangement, Game B,
> Metamodern or whatever - where and how are people concentrating and what
> are they concentrating on? That’s a way to focus on the forms of social
> practice that shape cultural norms.
>
> Anyway- grateful for any thoughts or amplification.
>
> Signing off, imagining the moon behind a bedroom blind in London, while
> also doubting that it’s there to be seen.
>
> Jonathan
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