conceptual change list

[William Beaty <billb@eskimo.com>]

On Tue, 17 Feb 1998, Alex. F. Burr wrote:

> I really appreciated Beaty's five stages (of correcting a misconception)
> post. I forms a good frame work for considering many problems.

I can't claim credit.  I saw the original version in Dr. Dean Radin's
recent book on the findings of modern parapsychology: THE CONSCIOUS
UNIVERSE.  He offered them as an illustration of how science confronts
those discoveries which require changes to be made in accepted theory.  I
don't have the book here, but I recall the list to be: 

  1. It's impossible!

  2. It's possible, but its implications are trivial and can be ignored.

  3. The implications are profoundly important and more wide-ranging
     than we had ever realized.

  4. We thought of it first.


I don't think Radin originated it, since I've seen similar things in
discussions of Kuhn's paradigm-shift concept, and in articles on learning
theory which discuss "cognitive dissonance".  When a person encounters a
concept that has no place in their current worldview, that person will
experience Cognitive Dissonance as discomfort.  The discomfort can range
upwards to such an intensity that the person sometimes attempts to
eliminate the source of the dissonance by lashing out at the offending
idea and at those who introduce it.  A wise person will interpret the
dissonance as a sign that profound conceptual change is needed.  In the
above list, #1 can have quite a bit of emotion attached to it, while #4 is
an attempt to erase the last vestiges of cognitive dissonance by denying
that the whole conceptual change process ever occurred. 

I love Radin's list because it involves meta-learning.  If I learn things,
then my knowledge increases linearly with time.  But if I learn about the
aquisition of knowledge, then my knowledge in theory can increase
exponentially. 

I see that the above list is a great tool for increasing my learning rate. 
Once I realize that REALLY new concepts will make me upset, then I see
that I must cultivate a taste for that particular feeling.  Make myself
into a physics-gourmet with a learned palate, as opposed to a child who
rejects fine wine on the grounds that the grape juice is rancid.
Intentionally seeking out particular types of rancid grape juice has its
compensations.  So does the intentional pursuit of certain types of
"abhorrent concept."

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