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About this episode

Transcript Philosophy Unveiled 6Hello. This is episode six of the series Philosophy Unveiled, by the author Lane Friesen. My name is Rachel, and I’ll be doing the reading today.Just a review. At this point we’ve looked at a very brief summary of some of the traits of two cognitive styles, Berkeley as a Mercy and Locke as a Perceiver. These traits are distilled from much longer historical profiles and you can see some of these at our website, cognitivestyles.com.Today we’ll be presenting the traits of another cognitive style, the Facilitator. And an example of the Facilitator in history is the philosopher Descartes.The Facilitator, like the other two cognitive styles, Perceiver and Mercy, is quite common, and one thing that we notice about the Facilitator is that he’s very social. The following traits are also presented at our website and you can view them in the pdf file, orderedcomplexity.pdf. So, let’s take a look.You know a lot of people. In fact, you can have hundreds of acquaintances. You divide your time among these people; most of them could become your close friends.Friends are your resources - when you need to check something, you know who to go to. Your friends change depending on what you are doing. You may spend a lot of time with one person on some project, and then not see him for months. You want to remain friendly with everyone; you do not want any of your friends to force you to become enemies with others.You adjust very easily and almost instantly to different kinds of people. You can talk with one person, then adjust to another who is very different, and then adjust further again to others. This adaptability comes naturally. You scan the situation or the person and alter the way you act and talk: you may be outgoing with one person but reserved with another. You find it difficult, for this reason, to talk with two very different individuals at the same time.The Facilitator appreciates having things in clear categories. You like to be at the center of activity. Others may be in control; you are the organizer, complementing and coordinating the excellence of those around you. You can break projects into tasks, and you know the right person for each aspect. You tie into everything, introduce key people to one another, and delegate responsibility. You would rather leave than be relegated to the edge of activity. You tend to write notes to yourself. On the fridge may be a reminder: “Potluck dinner Tuesday pm. Bring main dish.” Beside the telephone goes an­other: “Call Cathy about the rides for children to Friday field trip.” Every person’s activity is planned; you include yourself in the list, almost as if you were another person. If you didn’t write notes, then you might not remember.You like to organize your day by following a schedule. It bothers you to have things changed at the last minute. If something is scheduled, and suddenly becomes unnecessary, something in you wants to do it anyway, even though it’s no longer important.You prefer to begin a task by classifying, ordering and organizing things. You feel muddled and disoriented when things are confused. You may organize things even when working alone - you organize yourself!When you must learn a large number of facts, then you look for a method to classify these facts into groups. If there is too much informa­tion and no overall structure, then you feel overwhelmed. One common classification scheme deals with living organisms: genus and species, with names in Latin. Most people hate to learn these foreign sounds. If you enjoy plants or animals, you will find them useful. They help to keep things straight.You like to work with a filing system. It really helps you to think. You make sure you know where all your papers are; if you didn’t file them away, then you might lose them or forget them. Your scheme may not be large like that of a library, but it suits you. Even when it’s messy, you know exactly where everything is. Some sort of a system helps you to think clearly.You like to work within a structure that functions well. You tend to feel that people should not rebel against authority. If they have complaints, they should go through channels, and not attack the organization. You yourself may talk sometimes about rebelling, and say you want real change. You assume, however, that it will take place with­in limits, and after discussion. When people act impulsively on what is said or get violent, and when order breaks down, you are very disturbed.In particular, you find it comfortable to work within a bureaucracy. Some people might feel that bureaucracy is a bad word; you don’t. Others might find it restrictive to work in one, but you don’t feel that way, as long as you respect the leader. Rules and regulations allow you to help people fairly; they ensure that each person is treated equally. An authority structure allows you to make decisions wisely and consistently. Paperwork is necessary, in order to keep records and make sure the right people are informed.In an organization, you do not mind working under the control of others, if they are competent. When your boss knows what he is doing, then you will accept his decisions. You are willing to let him come up with the plan, and to fit you into it - in particular, you make an excellent executive secretary. Personal independence is not really a major concern: you would hesitate, for example, to give up the security of a good job, just to be self-employed.You easily value learning. You believe strongly in the importance of educating your children, and might be attracted to the profession of teaching. You are sensitive to the need for a right scope and sequence, and an orderly progression of cur­riculum. You love to be at the center of the class giving knowledge to those who are curious.As a child, you yourself were always asking how and why. You liked to take things apart to see how they worked - although sometimes you didn’t remember how to put them back together again. You probably had animals in your room, and frogs and caterpillars in your hands.You tend to feel that if children are given the opportunity to handle and examine things, they won’t need to be taught - they can learn for themselves. You yourself learned best when you experienced things. Children should have the same privilege: facts should not be forced on them; rather, they should be allowed to play with objects, feel various shapes, pour things from one container to another, build things, and place objects inside other ones. It will help them learn to think, and to ask the right questions.Facilitator strategy is at the center of human reason and logic. We said you were adaptable; the opposite side is that you can be easily influenced. After hearing something like this, for example, you may initially want to talk about it with everyone. Then, tomorrow or the next day, you might draw back sharply, warning yourself not to be too extreme or to get carried away. You will try to find some middle ground that is more balanced and represen­tative of a consensus.You might often avoid people who spring new ideas on you unexpectedly; I may have caught you here by surprise. You want things said at the right time and in the right way. You are easily influenced - you must defend yourself. Perhaps you have procedures, in your office, for evaluating ideas. You may trust, personally, in solid and fixed principles. When all else fails, you may listen politely, and you carry on a conversation, but ignore the words! In one ear; out the other.In particular, before you look at a concept, it must be described in the right language. Words are important to you. They carry a lot of meaning; they affect your emotions. When expressions are too powerful, you will use euphemisms. In sensitive situations, you may revert to bureaucrat­ese - that convoluted way of talking around something without really saying anything. You appreciate Beauty, and may idealize it in forms of art.You appreciate those who are courteous. I am not necessarily referring to etiquette and manners, but about evenness of manner, avoiding strong words, and talking around those things which you find difficult or unpleasant. Of course, in maturity, you appreciate truthful frankness from those who have something to say; you become one who can filter their ideas for others.You are very good at stepping back and analyzing a situation, and also your involvement in the situation. You yourself try to be courteous with others. At times, you may become involved in some pretty nasty political infighting - you know how to defend yourself - but it is conducted in a controlled and civilized atmos­phere, through interdepartmental memos, and the interpretations of procedures. Things you don’t say go down in your diary, at the end of the day. No one reads that! You may actually code parts of it to keep it secret.A diary is important to you in other ways as well. Your mind is like a computer, always operating. At the end of the day, if you didn’t process your thoughts in some way, your mind would keep working. Talking about the day’s events with someone or writing your thoughts down on paper helps you to go to sleep.Unlike others, you try to fit into what is happening around you; you generally work with what already is. You sit back and watch, and think what you would do, and how it could be organized. It can sometimes be very hard for you to step out and take initiative. Action on your part would change the situation; you would no longer be the observer. Others may need to request or even demand your involvement before you are willing to act.When you are in a position of responsibility, you sometimes find it hard to make the final deci­sion - you like to keep your options open, and deciding, by definition, closes some options. As a child, your parents may have offered you a dish of candy: “Take one.” You reached for a big one. But no, if you took it, then you wouldn’t be able to take the other. It was also very nice. Your hand hovered, and perhaps you touched the candies; you couldn’t decide. Finally, in frustration, your parents said you couldn’t have any!You appreciate input from others. Often, when you must decide, you will bounce your ideas off another. It will be someone whom you respect; he need not be an expert, nor must he add anything new. As you talk, and he listens, you convince yourself. Once you have gained a trustworthy friend and adviser, it is hard for you to go back to acting alone.As a decision-maker, you may pride yourself on being open-minded; that is, you are willing to consider anything, with one condition - it must not be forced on you. There was possibly a time, in your teens, when you exam­ined all that was learned, from parents and from school, and questioned whether it had been pushed upon you. Wherever the answer was yes, you rejected what was forced on you, and started again. If you did this, then you probably continue to shun anything that is presented impolitely, or pushed upon you. Then, with those restrictions automatically eliminated, you look in an open-minded and conciliatory manner at the remaining alternatives.You are constantly fine-tuning and experimenting, even with things that are working. You need variety and change. When things remain exactly the same, it is like a living death, for you can no longer make little adjustments. You feel stifled, as if you can no longer think. For example, once you get the flowers in your garden growing properly, you may dig them out and put in new ones, for the sake of variety. Some change is necessary; large change, though, can be confusing. You are muddled by truly major alterations, for they force you to rethink everything all at once.As you experiment, you set things up to run more efficiently. You play with one variable, keeping the others fixed. You observe the results. Then you change something else. You put together the pieces for assem­bly line operation.You are very aware of your senses. You take off your shoes and wade barefoot in the ocean; you appreciate the subtle shades of a sunset. Perhaps you may walk off the path to touch the orchid; this makes it more real. Smell may affect you in a strong way.Your sensitivity to pain as well as to pleasure can cause things to hurt more and more as you think about them. It can turn you into a hypochondriac; alternatively, you might also train yourself to filter the feeling of pain. You may become addicted to sensation, or you can be very cautious about keeping things appropriate.You enjoy things that are intricate, beautiful, and cleverly made. You are attracted to museums, art shows, theatrical performances, and other cultural events. Beauty, for you, can actually become Truth. You can be fully involved in sensory experience, and yet at the same time detached and observing. Even now, as you read this, you are watching yourself; you talk with others about yourself, as if you are another person. At a party you might ask yourself, “Am I enjoying myself?” If you should decide that things are no longer fun, then you would detach inside from the experience. Others would notice little difference - you still laugh and talk, as before - but inside you are now abstractly observing and analyzing.This ability to detach can make it hard for others to sense your feelings. You may hurt terribly, at some level of your personality, and yet discuss a matter objectively in a calm, level voice. You watch feelings rise within you; suddenly they overwhelm you and stop you from talking. Others don’t understand. How could a person who seemed totally calm break down so quickly?You think a lot. You wonder often about deep questions - the meaning of life, and why we exist. You are curious how great minds have analyzed these questions in the past. Perhaps you study different religions, or read psychology and philosophy. You look for things that are stable, around which you can anchor your person. Sometimes you look within yourself, and try to find stability in self-analysis.You find it easy to see truth in terms of dialectic thought: thesis, antithesis and synthesis. So, I will explain these terms.First, if something in society is generally accepted as true, then that is the thesis. However, suppose a group of people has come up with something else. That is an antithesis. You yourself gener­ate a synthesis by blending the two together in the light of things that have been said elsewhere. For you, this can be truth. With people’s words as well, truth may tend to be the average of the opinions of those whom you respect.You are connected very directly to sensory input; the external world might seem to intermingle with your own person. Yet somehow it is separate from you. If it is not you, yet still connected to you, then perhaps it is ‘God.’ You may therefore venerate Mother Nature.You ask deep questions about the origins of things. You blend ideas, form definitions, and smooth out changes. You see sequences. The biological classi­fication scheme for animals and plants changes easily in your mind, therefore, into a time sequence - you are a natural believer in evolution. It is, for you, an obvious way in which Mother Nature might have originated all things.You see almost everything that goes on in the mind. In some way, it is you; and yet it is not you. You might therefore form a ‘God’ who is one with you and with everything; you might be strongly attracted to eastern religions, especially Buddhism.Facilitator thought handles emergency processing within the mind. Our society currently is facing many challenges, which means that Facilitator thought is quite influential. When a community has clear standards, the Facilitator person is highly moral; he ‘knows’ what is right and wrong. When society begins to change its principles, though, then he is the first to be confused, and to ask questions. He searches for mental stability, but rejects information that is ‘stuffed down his throat,’ for he is no longer sure that ‘accepted authorities’ are correct. It makes him into a libertarian, fighting for academic freedom. Standards may be seen as obstacles to thought, and he urges their removal.Propelled in large part by the Facilitator’s persistent questioning, society becomes more liberal. Mental confusion forced the Facilitator to start thinking; other styles now begin to sense the prevailing uncertainty, and they turn to him for answers - he moves into positions of great responsibility, to generate replacements for what is being set aside. We find him, for example, in education and journalism. He uses dialectic thought. He may respect Mother Nature, evolution, eastern religion, and self-analysis. He can develop solutions that are synthesized averages of prevailing ideas, excluding input, of course, from those who support the old values, and from extremists. Standards in this way become highly relative.As society loses its moorings, the Facilitator person becomes muddled. He casts around for something solid: “The old ways don’t work. Abandon them! Let’s try something new.” There is massive experimentation, especially in education. Journalism becomes much more selective in its coverage, to encourage the development of what is novel, even as it guards ‘political correctness.’Any idea is permissible, as long as certain words are not employed inappropriately - to link with the old moral standards, for example. These expressions, used wrongly, can become painful to the Facilitator person. They trigger too many diverse emotions; they may disorient him. When words, however, cannot be used as words, then ideas can no longer be expressed. The Facilitator person - in a desperate emergency-driven attempt to maintain balance, and to reduce the pain of conflicting emotion - in effect has become the censor of society.Strangely, the Facilitator who can discern and hold on to principles that accurately describe cause and effect, within this chaotic kind of an environment, is the one most likely to develop wisdom.Alright, that wraps up the profile of the Facilitator. To bring a human touch into all of this, in the next episode I’ll be telling the story of an exceptional Facilitator whom we knew personally.After the next episode, we’ll be starting Part Two of this series, which will deal with the foundations in psychology. That concludes episode six of Philosophy Unveiled. Thank you for listening.

• Release Date

  Dec 23, 2007

• Runtime

  22:05