Dimensional thinkers

Chapter 1 - Worldview

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Dimensions

Welcome to the Dimensional thinkers page

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Dimensions are guiding metaphors for the complex reality that we are and our context is. They structure the totality of our agency

• Direction provides the 'expansiveness' of your world model
• Hidden layers are fields created by the 'action' and 'evaluation' dimension
• On top, all layers together create the third 'potention' dimension

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Dimensions overview

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Worldview - Dimensions

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3 Dimensions each with each two directions

Action dimension

Autonomy	<>	Participation
Human autonomy refers to the ability of a person to make their own decisions and act independently. This means they can think for themselves and act on their judgment and free will rather than being controlled (or influenced) by others. . For example, a person with autonomy can make decisions about their life, what career to pursue, and where to live. They can also make decisions about actions, such as what to do or how to spend their time. Having autonomy is important because it allows people to make their own choices and live their lives in a way that is meaningful and fulfilling to them. It also helps people to develop their sense of self and become independent and self-sufficient.		Human participation refers to the involvement of people in activities or processes that affect their lives or communities. Taking part can include decision-making, development or activities. . Participation is essential because it allows people to have a say in the things that affect them and to be involved in shaping their own lives and communities. It also helps to build a sense of community and belonging and can lead to greater understanding and cooperation. People can participate by volunteering their time or resources, joining organisations, speaking up and expressing their opinions and ideas, and working with others to achieve common goals.

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Evaluation dimension

Connectedness	<>	Coherence
Human connectedness refers to the state of being connected or related to something else. It can include participating in activities or processes and working with others. . It is essential because it allows people to be a part of something bigger than themselves and contribute to the success of a group or community. Connectedness can refer to the sense of belonging or attachment to a group or community. It can also help people develop new skills, connect, and feel a sense of accomplishment and purpose.		Human coherence refers to being logical and consistent or fitting together in a way that makes sense. It can apply to many things, including ideas, arguments, and explanations. . For example, a coherent argument is well-organized and follows a logical progression, with each point supporting the main idea and leading smoothly to the next. A cohesive explanation is clear and easy to understand and presents information logically. Coherence is essential because it helps people to understand and make sense of complex information and ideas. It also helps to ensure that communication is effective and that people can follow and understand the presented thoughts and ideas. Many factors can affect a person's coherence, including their level of education, language skills, and emotional state.

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Potention dimension

Competences	<>	Relevance
Human competences refers to the ability to do something well or effectively. It can refer to a specific skill or knowledge, working well in a team, or solving problems. . Competencies are essential because they allow people to perform tasks effectively and achieve goals. It can also help people to be more confident in their abilities and to feel more capable of taking on new challenges. People can develop many different types of competencies, which can vary depending on a person's interests, goals, and the requirements of their job or role in society. For example, competencies might include technical and personal skills, such as communicating effectively or working well with others. To develop competencies, people can engage in activities that challenge them and help them to learn new things, seek out opportunities to practice and improve their skills, and seek out education and training to help them learn new things.		Relevance refers to the relationship or connection between something and the context in which it is being considered. Something relevant is related or applicable to the situation or problem at hand and is, therefore, essential or valuable to consider. . Relevance is essential because it helps people focus on the information or ideas most meaningful or valuable to them in a given context. It can help to save time and effort by allowing people to ignore or set aside information that is not relevant or useful to their current needs or goals.

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Dimensional thinkers

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Aristoteles

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	1-Why	2-How	3-What
Human	Interests	Values	Goals
Dimensions	Action dimension	Evaluation dimension	Potention dimension
Soul (De Anima)
Concepts	Vegetative soul (threptikon)	Sensitive soul (aisthetikon)	Rational soul (logikon/noetikon)
Definitions of the above	The lowest level, shared by all living things including plants; responsible for nutrition, growth, and reproduction	Found in all animals; adds sensory perception, emotion, and desire on top of vegetative functions	Unique to humans; adds reason, thought, deliberation, and intellectual contemplation
Ways of Life
Concepts	The political life	Life of enjoyment	The contemplative life (bios theoretikos)
Definitions of the above	Devoted to honour and civic virtue; active engagement in governance and public affairs	Devoted to pleasure; Aristotle deems it slavish and more fitting of animals than of humans	Devoted to philosophical contemplation (theoria); Aristotle ultimately identifies this in Book X as the highest and happiest life, since it engages the best part of us (reason) in its finest activity
Goods
Concepts	Bodily goods	Goods of the soul	External goods
Definitions of the above	Health, strength, vitality, and pleasure	Knowledge, virtue, wisdom, friendship	Wealth, honour, food, shelter, and material necessities
Modes of Persuasion
Concepts	Ethos	Pathos	Logos
Definitions of the above	Persuasion through the speaker's character and credibility; audiences are more willing to trust someone they perceive as knowledgeable, honest, and good-willed	Persuasion by stirring the emotions of the audience; a speech that places hearers in the right emotional state makes them more receptive to the argument	Persuasion through logical argument, evidence, and rational proof; Aristotle considered this the most strictly intellectual mode
Slighting (Oligoria)
Concepts	Spite (epereasmos)	Insolence (hubris)	Contempt (kataphronesis)
Definitions of the above	Thwarting another person's wishes not for your own gain but purely to prevent theirs; the slight comes from the implicit message that the other person cannot harm or benefit you	Doing or saying things that cause shame to the victim, not for any purpose to yourself but for the pleasure it gives; Aristotle notes the insolent man thinks himself superior when he ill-treats others	Treating something as obviously of no importance; you slight what you consider trivial
Friendship
Concepts	Friendship of virtue	Friendship of pleasure	Friendship of utility
Definitions of the above	Based on mutual admiration of good character; each friend wishes the good of the other for the other's sake. This is the highest, rarest, and most enduring form	Based on enjoying each other's company. Most common among the young, it tends to be fleeting as tastes change	Based on mutual benefit; each party values the other for what they can get. Common in business or transactional relationships, and dissolves when the usefulness ends
Science
Concepts	Productive science	Practical science	Theoretical science
Definitions of the above	Concerned with making (poiesis): crafts, arts, and techniques (techne). The principle of movement lies in the producer, not the product	Concerned with knowledge of action (praxis): ethics, politics, and economics. Their objects are contingent human choices	Pursued for knowledge itself, not any practical end. Subdivided into natural philosophy, mathematics, and theology (first philosophy/metaphysics). These achieve the highest certainty because their objects are necessary and unchanging

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Aristoteles - Politics

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	1-Why	2-How	3-What
Human	Interests	Values	Goals
Dimensions	Action dimension	Evaluation dimension	Potention dimension
From 'True Form' (for common good)	Monarchy (rule by one)	Aristocracy (rule by the virtuous few)	Polity (rule by the many)
Definitions of the above	Rule by a single person in the common interest. "The first and most divine" form of government, where the monarch is pre-eminent in virtue and governs like a father over his household	Rule by a small number of the best citizens (from aristos, "best"), chosen for their virtue and excellence, in the interest of all. It is preferable to kingship when several equally virtuous men can be found	Rule by the many (the citizen body at large) for the common good. Aristotle considers this the best practicable form for most cities, since it blends democratic and oligarchic elements and is upheld by a strong middle class
To 'Perverted Form' (for rulers' benefit)	Tyranny	Oligarchy	Democracy
Definitions of the above	The corruption of kingship: rule by one person purely for his own benefit, not the people's	The corruption of aristocracy: rule by the wealthy few for their own enrichment. The defining mark is not merely small numbers but wealth as the qualification for power — wherever the rich rule in their own interest, it is an oligarchy regardless of how many	The corruption of polity: rule by the poor majority for their own benefit at the expense of the wealthy. Aristotle's definition here is notably different from the modern positive sense: "democracy exists when the free and poor, being a majority, have authority to rule" in their own sectional interest rather than the common good

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Richard Lewontin - Darwinism

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	1-Why	2-How	3-What
Human	Interests	Values	Goals
Dimensions	Action dimension	Evaluation dimension	Potention dimension
Description	Different variants leave different numbers of offspring either in immediate or remote generations (the principle of differential fitness)	There is variation in morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits among members of a species (the principle of variation)	The variation is in part heritable, so that individuals resemble their relations more than they resemble unrelated individuals and, in particular, offspring resemble their parents (the principle of heredity)
Concepts	Differential fitness	Phenotypic variation	Fitness is heritable
Definitions of the above	Different phenotypes have different rates of survival and reproduction in different environments	Different individuals in a population have different morphologies, physiologies, and behaviors	There is a correlation between parents and offspring in the contribution of each to future generations

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These three principles embody the principle of evolution by natural selection. While they hold, a population will undergo evolutionary change.

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Content Source
DARWINIAN POPULATIONS AND NATURAL SELECTION - Peter Godfrey-Smith

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Max Boisot - Information Space

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	1-Why	2-How	3-What
Human	Interests	Values	Goals
Dimensions	Action dimension	Evaluation dimension	Potention dimension
From	Knowledge tied to particular cases or events, becoming more and more abstract (autonomy)	Highly codified knowledge (e.g. a patent or technical manual) systematically classified, compressed and expressed in standardized categories (coherence)	Information with confined access to a narrow group or an individual (competencies)
To	Knowledge expressed in broader concepts, models or rules that summarise patterns across many cases (participation)	Uncodified knowledge which is more tacit: it cannot easily be captured in writing or formal representations without losing essential aspects of the experience (connectedness)	Information accessible to a large proportion of the relevant population, with codification and abstraction generally increasing its potential reach in a given time period
Concepts	Abstraction	Codification	Diffusion
Definitions of the above	Abstraction is the degree to which knowledge has been stripped of concrete, context‑specificdetails and reduced to general, salient characteristics that apply across many situations	Codification is the degree to which knowledge has been structured, formalised and expressed in a symbolic form (a “code”) so that it can be stored, transmitted and processed independently of the original experience	Diffusion is the degree to which a given piece of information or knowledge is shared across a population of agents - how widely and easily it has spread from its point of origin

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The ‘dimensional’ approach to the classification of types of knowledge is a very useful way of looking at capabilities development and value creation. For example, we can see that for a given capability we are likely to be interested in all three dimensions.

• By abstracting knowledge, the potential for applying the capability into new areas is enhanced.
• By codifying knowledge defining a capability, it increases the potential for diffusing the capability to others.
• Finally, the degree of diffusion will define the potential for gaining value.

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Content Source
Open University

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Hannah Arendt - Acting

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	1-Why	2-How	3-What
Human	Interests	Values	Goals
Dimensions	Action dimension	Evaluation dimension	Potention dimension
From	What is important for me (autonomy)	What has meaning to me (coherence)	My competencies
To	What is important for us (participation)	What is the meaning for us (connectedness)	the relevance of actions for the bigger situation
Concepts	Labour	Work	Action
Hannah Arendt	Labor is the activity which corresponds to the biological process of the human body, whose spontaneous growth, metabolism, and eventual decay are bound to the vital necessities produced and fed into the life process by labor. The human condition of labor is life itself.	Work is the activity which corresponds to the unnaturalness of human existence, which is not imbedded in, and whose mortality is not compensated by, the species' ever-recurring life cycle. Work provides an "artificial" world of things, distinctly different from all natural surroundings. Within its borders each individual life is housed, while this world itself is meant to outlast and transcend them all. The human condition of work is worldliness.	Action, the only activity that goes on directly between men without the intermediary of things or matter, corresponds to the human condition of plurality, to the fact that men, not Man, live on the earth and inhabit the world. While all aspects of the human condition are somehow related to politics, this plurality is specifically the condition-—not only the conditio sine qua non, but the conditio per quam—of all political life.
Definitions of the above	Labour is judged by its ability to sustain human life, to cater to our biological needs of consumption and reproduction	Work is judged by its ability to build and maintain a world fit for human use	Action is judged by its ability to disclose the identity of the agent, to affirm the reality of the world, and to actualize our capacity for freedom

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Although Arendt considers the three activities of labour, work and action equally necessary to a complete human life, in the sense that each contributes in its distinctive way to the realization of our human capacities, it is clear from her writings that she takes action to be the differentia specifica of human beings, that which distinguishes them from both the life of animals (who are similar to us insofar as they need to labor to sustain and reproduce themselves) and the life of the gods (with whom we share, intermittently, the activity of contemplation). In this respect the categories of labour and work, while significant in themselves, must be seen as counterpoints to the category of action, helping to differentiate and highlight the place of action within the order of the vita activa.

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Content Source
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Lemma: Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt - The human condition

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Hannah Arendt - The life of the mind

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	1-Why	2-How	3-What
Human	Interests	Values	Goals
Dimensions	Action dimension	Evaluation dimension	Potention dimension
From	What is important for me (autonomy)	What has meaning to me (coherence)	My competencies
To	What is important for us (participation)	What is the meaning for us (connectedness)	The relevance of actions for the bigger situation
Concepts	Willing	Judging	Thinking
Definitions of the above	The freedom to choose between two or more possibilities and to realize or actualize one of those possibilities	Whoever judges takes responsibility for the world	Thinking is dialogue, the active investigation and articulation of meaning and purpose.Not the thirst for knowledge, but the question of meaning drives thinking activity.Thinking withdraws itself from utility and resides in the domain of purpose and meaning

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Content Source
Het leven van de Geest - Ten Have - 2025

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Jay Van Bavel - Judgement

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	1-Why	2-How	3-What
Human	Interests	Values	Goals
Dimensions	Action dimension	Evaluation dimension	Potention dimension
From	What is important for me (autonomy)	What has meaning to me (coherence)	My competencies
To	What is important for us (participation)	What is the meaning for us (connectedness)	The relevance of actions for the bigger situation
Concepts	Hedonic (decision making)	Moral (decision making)	Pragmatic (decision making)
Definitions of the above	Hedonic decisions focussing on pleasure	Based on what’s right or wrong, and rooted in social norms and values,judgment is likely to become loaded with emotion and feels more extreme	Pragmatic decisions weights the practical costs and benefits

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Every day, each of us makes countless evaluations. Whether you rely more on a pragmatic, moral or hedonic perspective to evaluate an object or action depends on multiple considerations, including your goals and the social context. The way you look at a problem might change based on how you feel at that moment, or whether you are alone or accompanied by a friend. And this can fundamentally change how you judge the goodness of something. The decision about where to buy a coffee can be based on hedonic ones (eg, which café has the most delicious coffee?), moral ones (eg, is the café ethical in the way they treat their staff ?) or pragmatic considerations (eg, which café has the cheapest prices?).

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Content Source
Clara Pretus & Jay Van Bavel

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John Langshaw Austin - Speech

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	1-Why	2-How	3-What
Human	Interests	Values	Goals
Dimensions	Action dimension	Evaluation dimension	Potention dimension
Description	If I promise that I’ll be home for dinner and later state that I’ll be home for dinner, my actions are instances of the same locutionary act: both actions involve the content that I’ll be home for dinner. However, my actions are instances of different illocutionary acts: one has the force of a promise, while the other has the force of a statement	If I warn that the ice is thin, and so perform one illocutionary act, I may thereby perform a variety of perlocutionary acts: I may persuade someone to avoid it, or encourage someone to take a risk, and so forth	The performance of an act that can be classified by its content (the rhetic act)—a feature distinctively of acts of speech. If I promise that I’ll be home for dinner and then promise that I’ll work late, my actions are instances of two different locutionary acts: one with the content that I’ll be home for dinner, and one with the content that I’ll work late
Concepts	The illocutionary act	The perlocutionary act	The locutionary act
Definitions of the above	An act classifiable not only by its content - as with the locutionary act - but also by its force (stating, warning, promising, etc.)	An act classifiable by its consequential effects upon the feelings, thoughts, or actions of the audience, or of the speaker, or of other persons	The production of an utterance that can be classified by its phonetic, grammatical, and lexical characteristics, up to sentence meaning

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Austin’s discussion of illocutionary acts is bound up with his other discussions of the ways in which assessment of utterances as to truth is dependent upon specific features of the circumstances of utterance (context).

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Content Source
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Lemma: John Langshaw Austin

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More to come

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