contingencies of the environment. This distinction
between fixed (invariant) codes and flexible (variable) strategies may
sound at first a little abstract, but it is fundamental to all purposeful
behaviour; a few examples will illustrate what is meant.
* 'Constraint' is a rather unhappy scientific term (reminiscent of
the strait-jacket) which refers to the rules which govern organized
activity.
The common spider's web-making activities are controlled by a fixed
inherited canon (which prescribes that the radial threads should always
bisect the laterals at equal angles, thus forming a regular polygon);
but the spider is free to suspend his web from three, four or more
points of attachment -- to choose his strategy according to the lie of
the land. Other instinctive activities -- birds building nests, bees
constructing their hives, silkworms spinning their cocoons -- all have
this dual characteristic of conforming to an invariant code or rule --
book which contains the blueprint of the finished product, but using
amazingly varied strategies to achieve it.
Passing from the instinctive activities of the humble spider to sophisticated
human skills like playing chess, we again find a code of fixed rules which
define the permissible moves, but the choice of the actual move
is left to the player, whose strategy is guided by the environment --
the distribution of the chessmen on the board. Speech , as we saw,
is governed by various canons on various levels, from semantics through
grammar down to phonology, but on each of these levels the speaker has
a vast variety of strategic choices: from the selection and ordering
of the material to be conveyed, through the formulation of paragraphs
and sentences, the choice of metaphors and adjectives, right down to
enunciation -- the selective emphasis placed on individual vowels. Similar
considerations apply to the pianist improvising variations on a theme. The
fixed 'rule of the game' in this case is the given melodic pattern, but he
has almost infinite scope for the strategic choices in phasing, rhythm,
tempo or transposition into a different key.* A lawyer's activities are
very different from a pianist's but the lawyer, too, operates within
fixed rules laid down by statute and precedent, while he disposes of a
vast range of strategies in interpreting and applying the law.
* Incidentally, transposition of a musical theme into a different key
on the piano, where the sequence of finger movements is totally
different, amounts to a complete refutation of the behaviourists'
chain-response theory.
9
In ontogenesis -- the development of the embryo -- the distinction
between 'rules' and 'strategies' is at first sight less obvious, and
requires a slightly longer explanation.
The apex of the hierarchy in this case is the fertilized egg; the axis
of the inverted tree represents time: and the holons on successive lower
levels represent successive stages in the differentiation of tissues into
organs. The growth of the embryo from a shapeless blob to a 'roughed in'
form and through various stages of increasing articulation has been compared
to the way in which a sculptor carves a figure out of a block of wood --
or, as already mentioned, to the 'spelling out' of an amorphous idea
into articulate phonemes.
The 'idea' to be spelt out in ontogeny is contained in the genetic code,
housed in the double helix of nucleic acid strands in the chromosomes.
It takes fifty-six generations of cells to produce a human being out of
a single, fertilized egg-cell. The cells in the growing embryo are
all of identical origin, and carry the same set of chromosomes, i.e.,
the same hereditary dispositions. In spite of this, they develop into
such diverse products as muscle cells, kidney cells, brain cells,
toe-nails. How can they do this if they are all governed by the same
set of laws, by the same hereditary canon?
This is a question which, as W. H. Thorpe
between fixed (invariant) codes and flexible (variable) strategies may
sound at first a little abstract, but it is fundamental to all purposeful
behaviour; a few examples will illustrate what is meant.
* 'Constraint' is a rather unhappy scientific term (reminiscent of
the strait-jacket) which refers to the rules which govern organized
activity.
The common spider's web-making activities are controlled by a fixed
inherited canon (which prescribes that the radial threads should always
bisect the laterals at equal angles, thus forming a regular polygon);
but the spider is free to suspend his web from three, four or more
points of attachment -- to choose his strategy according to the lie of
the land. Other instinctive activities -- birds building nests, bees
constructing their hives, silkworms spinning their cocoons -- all have
this dual characteristic of conforming to an invariant code or rule --
book which contains the blueprint of the finished product, but using
amazingly varied strategies to achieve it.
Passing from the instinctive activities of the humble spider to sophisticated
human skills like playing chess, we again find a code of fixed rules which
define the permissible moves, but the choice of the actual move
is left to the player, whose strategy is guided by the environment --
the distribution of the chessmen on the board. Speech , as we saw,
is governed by various canons on various levels, from semantics through
grammar down to phonology, but on each of these levels the speaker has
a vast variety of strategic choices: from the selection and ordering
of the material to be conveyed, through the formulation of paragraphs
and sentences, the choice of metaphors and adjectives, right down to
enunciation -- the selective emphasis placed on individual vowels. Similar
considerations apply to the pianist improvising variations on a theme. The
fixed 'rule of the game' in this case is the given melodic pattern, but he
has almost infinite scope for the strategic choices in phasing, rhythm,
tempo or transposition into a different key.* A lawyer's activities are
very different from a pianist's but the lawyer, too, operates within
fixed rules laid down by statute and precedent, while he disposes of a
vast range of strategies in interpreting and applying the law.
* Incidentally, transposition of a musical theme into a different key
on the piano, where the sequence of finger movements is totally
different, amounts to a complete refutation of the behaviourists'
chain-response theory.
9
In ontogenesis -- the development of the embryo -- the distinction
between 'rules' and 'strategies' is at first sight less obvious, and
requires a slightly longer explanation.
The apex of the hierarchy in this case is the fertilized egg; the axis
of the inverted tree represents time: and the holons on successive lower
levels represent successive stages in the differentiation of tissues into
organs. The growth of the embryo from a shapeless blob to a 'roughed in'
form and through various stages of increasing articulation has been compared
to the way in which a sculptor carves a figure out of a block of wood --
or, as already mentioned, to the 'spelling out' of an amorphous idea
into articulate phonemes.
The 'idea' to be spelt out in ontogeny is contained in the genetic code,
housed in the double helix of nucleic acid strands in the chromosomes.
It takes fifty-six generations of cells to produce a human being out of
a single, fertilized egg-cell. The cells in the growing embryo are
all of identical origin, and carry the same set of chromosomes, i.e.,
the same hereditary dispositions. In spite of this, they develop into
such diverse products as muscle cells, kidney cells, brain cells,
toe-nails. How can they do this if they are all governed by the same
set of laws, by the same hereditary canon?
This is a question which, as W. H. Thorpe
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