Love, Maturana and Empedocles

Thanks to Pete, from the com-prac group, I've just come in contact with Maturana's work, which is way too complex and fascinating to be blogged about it in few minutes (or even few days, it takes more chewing).

However, skimming through it, something reminded me of
Empedocles, and how his two forces, philia (love) and neikos (strife) ,ruled the combination/distruction cycle of elements. This too, like Maturana's, can be applied to organizational settings, I believe.

I've always been very fond of pre-socratic philosophers, or the philosophers of nature, because they all postulated how the first principle of everything (archè) belonged to nature. Most of them were scientists as well, and started philosophy of science de facto.

Even thought it is a typical product of Western society, philosophy is almost absent from educational curricula in the United States (with the exception of its by-product critical thinking) while in Europe it is taught in High Schools. That puzzles me to no end, cause I think such technological country without the guidance of good (=logic) thinking, can be a serious danger.