Unpacking ideas in a chaotic world
Have you ever thought about what ideas you use to think of other ideas with? For example, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, that all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor, is an idea that has been used to think of other ideas with. Darwinian evolution is a method of explaining changes. His ideas dismantled the notion that humans were miraculously special. Over time, there was room for variation that transformed the beliefs people had about themselves. For Darwin, the idea of variation existed in random mutations that produced adaptive changes to form new life - a concept of natural selection for environmental adaptation. But the ‘mutation’ from his discipline was the beginning of something new in society, without losing any of its original quality; the new ideas people had about themselves as a species. That’s why it is relevant which stories tell stories, which concepts think other concepts or which systems systemise systems. They can lead to meaningful ins...