Elliott Jaques

The Life and Behavior of Living Organisms (eBook, PDF)

A General Theory

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Jaques presents a totally new general theoretical foundation for understanding the individual and social behavior of all living organisms. In contrast to existing theories of behavior which are static, Jaques has succeeded in breaking through to a truly dynamic orientation. This breakthrough, resulted from his fundamental research into work organizations that led to the realization that the difference between inanimate processes and all living behavior, is that all living behavior is composed of intentional goal-directed work. This continuous work entails the use of judgment in choosing goals and in making the decisions necessary to get to these goals. This work process is the same in all living organisms, including humans. It is an ineffable process of the total organism, inaccessible to direct observation and experience. Intentionality is the dynamic of behavior. This discovery has led over the past 50 years to extensive discoveries--objective measures of work complexity, and of the level of complexity (capability) of individuals in all species; how human language differs from communication in other species; the need to distinguish between horizontal evolutionary mutations within a given level of capability, and vertical evolution to species with higher levels of complexity; the nature of freedom within mutual-trust inducing constraints. Set forth to radically change the nature of all behavioral and social sciences in the new millenium, Jaques' analysis is essential reading for all scholars, students, and researchers as well as the general public involved with the behavior of living organisms.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
• Seitenzahl: 296
• Altersempfehlung: ab 7 Jahre
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. Dezember 2001
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780313074691
• Artikelnr.: 68251197

Autorenporträt

ELLIOTT JAQUES is Research Professor of Management Science, Department of Management, George Washington University, and Professor Emeritus of Social Science at Brunel University, England. He holds an M.D. from Johns Hopkins, a Ph.D. from Harvard, and is a member of the British Psycho-Analytical Society. Dr. Jaques was cited by (then General) Colin Powell for . . . his outstanding contribution in the field of military leadership theory and instruction. . . . He is author of numerous articles, in one of which he created the concept of the mid-life crisis, and more than 20 books, among them The Life and Behavior of Living Organisms, published by another imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Praeger Publishers.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface Introduction What Is Life? Overview A Half Century of Findings on
Work, Complexity, and Capability Work as Goal-directed Choice (laboro ergo
sum) Complexity and Capability in Living Organisms Laying the Groundwork
Awareness, Signaling, Language and Other Basic Concepts Minds, Bodies,
Reductionism, and Systems Theory Potential and Applied Capability
Throughout the Living Kingdom Life in the Pre-Linguistic World The Choice
Making Functions of All Living Organisms The Whole Organism and Its Parts
The Organism in Action Reality in the Sensible World as Cause-and-effect
Testing The Language-Suffused World of Humans The Evolutionary Emergence of
Homo Sapiens, with Language and Consciousness The Fruits of Evolution The
Spread of Homo Sapiens Across the World The Language Suffused World:
Prometheus, Pandora, and the Unicorns Modern Alchemy and the Disruption of
Capitalist Democracy Time, Science, and Freedom Toward a Science-based Art
of Social Ordering Values for a Living World: Freedom and Constraint, and
Mutual Trust and Morals Some Retrospective Musings Glossary Bibliography
Index