Hi TOK List Members,

 

  About 8 people have been added to the list in the last week or so. As such I started to write them an introduction, but then realized this might be helpful for the list in general. So, here goes:

 

  Thanks for your interest in the TOK Society. As you will see, the TOK List activity varies and the topics bounce around. As with the rest of the world, lately we have been having a number of discussions about the pandemic. As the note you received on the TOK Society indicated, it consists of about 80+ scholars, students, and interested lay people who are intrigued both by the Unified Framework and big pictures of knowledge more generally. I think there is a shared agreement that our society needs better ways of making sense of the work and thus big picture frameworks can help with that. Indeed, as this (pre-pandemic) blog indicates, our global society faces a number of “meta-crises”, including crises of meaning and mental health that require new ways of thinking about the human condition and new practices that bring us together to enhance our well-being and potential for fulfillment and doing good works in the world.

 

  One of the first orders of business is to get clear about the language and abbreviations of TOK v ToK. First, there is the general meaning of “theory of knowledge”. Here is a blog on knowledge and theory of knowledge. Second, the Unfired Framework is my proposal for a theory of knowledge. Third, the society is the Theory Of Knowledge because as a group, we are interested in big picture visions, with special interest in the Unified Framework. Note that when we are referring to theory of knowledge in this context, it is TOK, with a capital “O” in the middle.

 

  As the attached slide deck explains, the centerpiece of the Unified Framework is the Tree of Knowledge System. It is a theory of scientific knowledge, or, if you prefer, a naturalistic, scientific worldview. By that I mean it is a new way to represent both reality (as depicted by Matter, Life, Mind, and Culture) and the way science emerges out of culture to generate descriptions and explanations of that reality (in the form of the physical, biological, psychological and social sciences). The Tree of Knowledge is ToK, with a small “o”. It is a new way to think about both behavioral complexity as existing on levels (parts, wholes, groups) and dimensions (Matter, Life, Mind and Culture), the latter of which are connected by “joint points”. This is one of the things that makes the ToK System so novel. We can demonstrate just how novel it is by showing how it solves the problem of a science of psychology. This problem refers to the fact that there is no coherent science of psychology. This is a quite remarkable fact that does not get much attention and is diagnostic of our inadequate and incomplete knowledge systems. Here is the first academic paper on how the ToK System solves the “metatheoretical problem” of psychology by assimilating and integrating the key insights from BF Skinner and Sigmund Freud and lining up the physical, biological, psychological, and social sciences with the four dimensions of behavioral complexity.   

 

  Also, you may have guessed already, the system is complicated and grapples with the big picture across many different domains and uses much language that is likely to be unfamiliar. Many folks are initially intrigued and then a bit overwhelmed, as it is hard to keep track of everything. I am very aware of that, and I am working hard on trying to develop pedagogical tools and processes that help with digesting it.

 

  This blog provides an overview of the basics of the system. Since 2020, I have been consistently referring to the whole system as “the Unified Framework”. I am currently working on my second book on the system, which is called The Unified Framework: A Metapsychology for the 21^st Century. A “metapsychology” is something that is above/beyond psychology, and thus is much like a philosophy or worldview. Freud’s psychoanalysis was the first (and really only other well-known) metapsychology.

 

  The attached slide deck provides the basic minimum overview of the Unified Framework. Flip through them and see what you see. Usually the easiest concepts to grasp are the Nested Model of Well-being and the integrated approach to psychological mindfulness called CALM-MO. As you will see, that stands for a Metacognitive Observer that is Curious, Accepting, Loving/compassionate, and Motivated toward valued states of becoming.

 

  Also, note that between 2017-2019, I was referring it to “UTUA” as the Unified Theory/Unified Approach. During that time, I was obsessed with what is called the “Garden” representation. You will see the Garden of UTUA at the end of the slide deck. It is a long story, but the gist is that the metapsychology bridges different kinds of justification systems. Specifically, it bridges “logos”, which basically means science, with “mythos” which means the mytho-poetic narratives that hold society together (most obviously held in the great religious traditions). The Tree/Theory of Knowledge in the middle of the Garden is a clear reference to the Judeo-Christian mytho-poetic narrative in Genesis in the Bible, which, of course, is foundational to the West.

 

  Finally, if you like listening to podcasts, attached is a list of most of the podcasts I have done. One day I am hoping to get up a YouTube channel, tentatively titled TOK21 (i.e., Theory of Knowledge for the 21^st Century) to share this stuff in that format.

 

I will end it there for now. Thanks for your time and interest in this project. Let me know if there are questions.

 

Stay safe and resilient!

Gregg