Hey, Alan and all

I love the way you've expressed this, Alan.  I don't always find your
writing accessible (my problem, I suspect) and that's why I usually don't
respond when you post stuff, as I'm not sure I've totally understood it.
But this is concise, well expressed and some of the expressions (for
instance "an absence of material presence, but which is really a presence of
material absence") are quite inspired.

If you were doing it on radio here, I'd suggest explaining 'expires' is
being used in the respiratory sense of breathing out, as 'expires' here
would normally be taken to be 'carks it!' and by the time people finished
processing that you're not actually talking about death, they may have lost
the next bit of what you're saying.  But people in the UK may be more up
with the play on inspiration and expiration than I suspect most of us would
be, just encountering the statements in a radio interview!  So, for
instance, if you started that sentence "Thinking of the body's breathing in
and breathing out,...." then continue with the inspiration/expiration stuff,
you'd avoid any misunderstanding.  But you may not like the sentence at all,
and I may be doing my usual trick of rescuing listeners who don't actually
need rescuing.

What I REALLY like in the piece is the argument against the fragmentation of
the individual.  That whole paralysis by analysis stuff hacks me off.
That's where I think indigenous people often have a better sense of the
wholeness of the individual than some of the so-called more sophisticated
cultures.  I have even heard of people weighing bodies before and after
death to try to discern whether 'the soul' has weight...how bizarre.

Hope the interview goes well!
Warm regards
Pip Bruce Ferguson

-----Original Message-----
From: Practitioner-Researcher
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alan Rayner
(BU)
Sent: Tuesday, 4 November 2008 10:50 p.m.
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Fw: Evolution

Dear Jack and all,

'Coincidentally', I have just been asked to do an interview later this week
for local radio ('Wiltshire Radio') concerning whether 'Nature' or 'Nurture'
can claim credit for Lewis Hamilton's success in becoming Formula One World
Champion.

I have written the attached, by way of preparation.

Any thoughts?

Warmest

Alan


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jack Whitehead" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, November 01, 2008 10:58 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Evolution


On 1 Nov 2008, at 09:53, Alan Rayner (BU) wrote:

"I think this short correspondence trail with a biology graduate from Bath 
may give pause
for reflection on why it is so important to develop an inclusional 
evolutionary
understanding and living educational theory."

Hi Alan - I'm looking forward later today to adding to the thread started by

Joan on
Rationale for Living Theory - Looking at your one-liner above I'm focusing 
on

"..the importance of developing an inclusional evolutionary understanding 
and living
educational theory".    Some thoughts are coming to mind....

i) The importance of 'using' an inclusional evolutionary understanding in 
the generation of
living educational theories - I like this because I think we can draw 
insights from the
inclusional evolutionary understanding you have already helped to develop, 
in the
generation of living educational theories.

ii The importance of 'developing' an inclusional evolutionary understanding 
in the
generation of living educational theories - I like this because it includes 
a mutual
development in the relationship between an inclusional evolutionary 
understanding and
the generation of living educational theories.

These can be combined in the question:

iii) How am I or how are we using and developing an inclusional evolutionary
understanding in the generation of our living educational theories?

I'm working with a modification of the idea usually attributed to Marx that 
'Philosophers
interpret the world, the point however is to change it'. The modification 
I'm working with
is that 'Philosophers interpret the world the point however is to improve 
it'. Hence I'm
continuing to explore the implications of asking, researching and answering 
my question,
'how do I improve what I am doing?' in my professional context for the 
generation of my
own living educational theory. I'm also wanting to participate in 
collaborative enquiries
with others on the list as we support each other in shared enquiries and/or 
our individual
enquiries. Maybe these shared enquiries will emerge from following Joan's 
lead in posting
our individual rationales for generating our living theories. I'll re-read 
all the contributions
to the thread on Rationale for Living Theory in the October postings and 
I'll post my
rationale later today and make some suggestions for some collaborative 
enquiries as we
begin the November 08 phase of our e-seminar

Love Jack.