Friday, May 31, 1996
paper for flagstaff- MORPHOLOGY AND PCT
Sunday mornings usually bring door raps by sweet persons offering
immortality, not in heaven, but right here on this earth. Just forget
evolution. Read the Bible. I am half asleep in my bathrobe. I thank them
and tell them I like Darwin. But that was before I found PCT.
Now I too have the truth. Just a few months ago illumination struck. I
locked onto B:CP. Now I too have answers to, well, almost everything.
For manipulative rationalization power, 'Powers' PCT, especially HPCT, is
a paradigm without an equal. Rococo thinking, convoluted enthymemes, It
sure feels good to know the answers, or at least to know that if I were an
electrical engineer I would not only know, but understand, the answers. I
once could solve differential equations. Maybe now I can do it again. I
have faith in them.
So now I am a born again PCT fanatic. Feels great.
This is what the Baron von Uexkull was saying when he claimed that the tick
perceives its universe from its local station point. And that is what I was
trying to tell my doctoral chairman when I said we all perceive Time
according to our somatotype. No one perceives the 'ding en sich' of the
philosophers. Our temporal horizon is extended, distended, usurped, and
most of all extruded by our placement in our own personal morphological
space.
Above my computer I had tacked my battle cry, "Your philosophy is defined
by your anatomy." (This was before PCT).
So how does PCT differ from what I have been arguing for years? Now I am
nor sure. It is not a matter of differing. It is a matter of filling in
gaps and supplying explanations.
My research follows the theories of William H. Sheldon. (Yes, he was a nut,
so was Newton). Sheldonian theory requires that behavior follow structure.
It is built on the concept of differential dominance between the three
original layers of our embryo that emerge with the invagination that turns
a sphere into a caved in ball. These are the endoderm, mesoderm, and
ectoderm.
Applying PCT analysis, the control experience is subject to extrusion
(likea die), through the organism. There is no stereotype. The scales that
S.S,Stevens developed for Sheldon run through over a thousand body types.
These in turn are filtered through several other sets of variables. such as
gynandromorphy, texture, dysplasia, etc. The permutations are exponential.
So the permutations of behavior in humans is exponential. But it is
possible to narrow down to close to a few hundred human types.
Having to reorient my fundamental concepts is not going to be easy. Just
when I think that I have Control Theory clear in mind, I get a sinking
feeling that I don't know anything about it. But I do find on rereading the
RJR and WTP Introduction, suddenly light flashes on. Maybe by time I get to
the Flagstaff meeting it will all become clear. But I sure enjoy the
iconoclastic rhetoric.
Ellery