Spencer Brown's paradox
Publikation: Bidrag til bog/antologi/rapport › Bidrag til bog/antologi › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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Spencer Brown's paradox. / Zundel, Mike; La Cour, Anders; Lauritzen, Ghita Dragsdahl.
Interdisciplinary Dialogues on Organizational Paradox: Investigating Social Structures and Human Expression, Part B (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 73b). red. / Rebecca Bednarek; Miguel Pina e Cunha; Jonathan Schad; Wendy Smith. Bind 73 Bingley : Emerald Group Publishing, 2021. s. 139-159 (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Bind 73b).Publikation: Bidrag til bog/antologi/rapport › Bidrag til bog/antologi › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - CHAP
T1 - Spencer Brown's paradox
AU - Zundel, Mike
AU - La Cour, Anders
AU - Lauritzen, Ghita Dragsdahl
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - George Spencer Brown is best known for his book Laws of Form, which elaborates a primary algebra of distinctions and forms capable of dealing with self-referential equations reflective of paradoxes in logic. The book has received little attention in mathematics, but it has greatly influenced cybernetics, communications, and ecological theories. But Spencer Brown also published poetry and stories, often under different names, and he practiced as a psychotherapist. Our chapter elaborates the utility of Laws of Form relating to organizational paradox before considering Spencer Brown’s other works in relation to his mathematics. Invoking philosophy, psychoanalysis and art, we suggest that these indicate a further distinction that sets all forms against the “nothing”: a wholeness or unity from out of which all distinctions, all words, meaning and life – but also all silence, nonsense and death – emerge in paradoxical opposition. Reading Spencer Brown not through the prism of mathematics, but as an evocative invitation to engage with the fissures that animate art and human life, highlights the paradoxical interplay of organization and violence; and how tragedy, suffering, sympathy and love should be more prominent in organizational research.
AB - George Spencer Brown is best known for his book Laws of Form, which elaborates a primary algebra of distinctions and forms capable of dealing with self-referential equations reflective of paradoxes in logic. The book has received little attention in mathematics, but it has greatly influenced cybernetics, communications, and ecological theories. But Spencer Brown also published poetry and stories, often under different names, and he practiced as a psychotherapist. Our chapter elaborates the utility of Laws of Form relating to organizational paradox before considering Spencer Brown’s other works in relation to his mathematics. Invoking philosophy, psychoanalysis and art, we suggest that these indicate a further distinction that sets all forms against the “nothing”: a wholeness or unity from out of which all distinctions, all words, meaning and life – but also all silence, nonsense and death – emerge in paradoxical opposition. Reading Spencer Brown not through the prism of mathematics, but as an evocative invitation to engage with the fissures that animate art and human life, highlights the paradoxical interplay of organization and violence; and how tragedy, suffering, sympathy and love should be more prominent in organizational research.
U2 - 10.1108/S0733-558X202173b
DO - 10.1108/S0733-558X202173b
M3 - Book chapter
SN - 978-1-80117-187-8
VL - 73
T3 - Research in the Sociology of Organizations
SP - 139
EP - 159
BT - Interdisciplinary Dialogues on Organizational Paradox
A2 - Bednarek, Rebecca
A2 - Pina e Cunha, Miguel
A2 - Schad, Jonathan
A2 - Smith, Wendy
PB - Emerald Group Publishing
CY - Bingley
ER -
ID: 334016520