vi Book: Bill Ross - 'Order and the Virtual'

'The Philosophy and Science of Deleuzian Cosmology'

Over time I have equated the center of Hodges' model with a nexus. Framing the whole model as a chaotic system, comprised of four domains, with two (or more?) Lorenz attractors, how do we make sense of what is going on? 

A previous post visited this too: Threshold Concepts: Reflection on chaos, complexity and AI 

Reading Order and the Virtual the new vocabulary, provides glimpses. The perspectives I'm adopting are no doubt naive and favour my context. If we freeze the situation from the center - the nexus the variables, parameters are frozen within their respective domains and tracks around the attractors. They tell us little (now), for obvious reasons, but (with AI and) acknowledging the social and political is a huge step forward (in healthcare).

'The word 'appetition' occurs not infrequently in Whitehead's work, though his own coining is 'prehension`. Both words convey essentially the same import. All individuals 'prehend' all others - the entire universe is expressed through the relations pertaining to any given individual therein.36 Prehension belongs cqually to the event as to the conscious decision. The 'nexus' or 'actual occasion' is the outcome of prior appetitive or prehensive enfolding for Whitehead as it is for Leibniz, and the aggregate of past prehensions shapes the future of the individual. The crucial refinement comes with the term 'negative prehension'. 

For Whitehead, accepting those same tenets that characterise Leibniz's metaphysics, the interconnection of all things and the tendency of systems to enfold elements from their total situation, negative prehension is a necessary corollary to positive appetition. It belongs to the 'principle of limitation' which Whitehead saw as a necessary supplement to Spinozist metaphysics, and which we shall encounter in some detail in following chapters.' 

It helps me, that Spinoza is heard here. 

'Instead of how is it that all things are interconnected, the question becomes, "Given that all things are interconnected, how is it that individuation is possible?'

Before recourse to Lorenz's butterflies, I saw 'oscillations', a constant swing from individual to other(s); then back again. 

`Every present state of a simple substance is a natural consequence of its preceding state, in such a way that its present is big with its future',37 (all p.47.)

While concerning a 'simple substance', is this a prelude to self-care and preventive health care?

I noted in pencil: In Hodges' model 'nexus' is framed as the now - that just was. Ross carries on to discuss 'the multiplicity of components in the nexus can enter explicit feeling as contrasts.' p.48.

Yes. 'The local and global are entwined' p.49; and now with the glocal too. Ross points out how Deleuze draws upon Simondon's treatment of the organic and inorganic within the same framework, p.50.

I've also been reminded about resolving some abbreviations:

https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2025/07/axiomatic-simondon.html

Many thanks to Edinburgh University Press for my review copy.

More to follow here ...

Bill Ross (2024) Order and the Virtual: The Philosophy and Science of Deleuzian Cosmology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-order-and-the-virtual.html

(ii) Hodges' model? Ah! You mean the naïve conceptual framework that ...

... thinks it's a theory!

Apparently, the support of computers, through computer proof assistants, to help test and generate proofs in mathematics is creating confusion for mathematicians. 

"When you see “2 + 2 = 4”, what does “=” mean? It turns out that’s a complicated question, because mathematicians can’t agree on the definition of what makes two things equal. ... 

It was the late 19th century when things began to change, with the development of set theory, which provides the logical foundations for most modern mathematics.

To understand why, take the sets {1, 2, 3} and {a, b, c}. Clearly, the elements of each set are different, so the sets aren't equal. But there are also ways of mapping between the two sets, by identifying each letter with a number. Mathematicians call this an isomorphism. In this case, there are multiple isomorphisms because you have a choice of which number to assign to each letter, but in many cases, there is only one clear choice, called the canonical isomorphism. ...

Because a canonical isomorphism of two sets is the only possible way to link them, many mathematicians now take this to mean they are equal, even though it isn't technically the same concept of equality that most of us are used to."

Does this create an 'opening' for others? Others, whose commute also falls between the cold-logic of the hard sciences, and the fuzzy fields of the humanities? Others who may find the threshold as daunting, as it is (truly!?) tantalising.

Alex Wilkins, Confusion over what 'equals’ means. New Scientist, 262: 3495: 15 June 2024. pp.10-11.

Many thanks to Alex Wilkins for a pdf copy.

Hodges' model? Ah! You mean the naïve conceptual framework that ...

... thinks it's a theory! (i)

Yes, I suppose it is naïve, now you mention it. It's naïve in a number of ways:

1. The assumed state of students - new learners; although of course, in healthcare and other professions for many years mature students - far from naïve - can make up a notable proportion;
2. When a patient assessment begins, especially upon initial (and first) referral, the data gathering, our knowledge should then be assumed to be naïve.
3. The quest for a theoretical underpinning of Hodges' model, may display naïve associations between concepts that are misplaced, misunderstood and wholly inappropriate.

Worth noting in #1, that policy-makers and recruitment specialist hope to increase the number of mature entrants, given demographic pressures.

If you consider the way nursing as a profession has received 'nursing theory', or in a similar vein, consider the status of nursing theory, and models of care in nurse (and healthcare) curricula today, then the approach is pragmatically naïve? From the 1970's -

Vinner, S. (1976). The Naive Concept of Definition in Mathematics. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 7(4), 413–429. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3481947

Vinner writes:

"As a matter of fact, all of us start to deal with definitions at a very young age when we start to leam our mother tongue. At this stage, various types of definition occur and the subject is too complicated to be dealt with here. After several years, especially at school, one type of definition becomes dominant; the lexical definition. In a lexical definition, the meaning of a certain word (or words) is explained by means of other words (we shall deal here only with the case in which the word and its definition are at the same language). This type of definition generally occurs in mono-lingual dictionaries." p.425.

"The sentence: 'A rectangle is a quadrangle that has four right angles' does not have in it any underlying assumptions about the role of definition in mathematics. It can be interpreted in any of the following three ways:

1. We (math teachers and math students) hereby agree that instead of saying, "a quadrangle that has four right angles" we will say: "a rectangle" (The formalistic approach).
2. In the mathematical community the meaning of the word rectangle is a quadrangle that has four right angles (The lexical approach from the expert's point of view).
3. The object denoted by the word 'rectangle' is a quadrangle that has four right angles (The lexical approach from the naive standpoint). 

Thus, not adding anything to definitions like the above we let the student choose his own interpretation out of the three mentioned (or even possibly more) interpretations. We claim that in most cases the student's choice will be the third one." pp.427-428.

Does the diaeresis here point to forms of parity of esteem, oppositions, polarities, dichotomy?

Cognitive apprenticeship . . .

INDIVIDUAL
|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

"The learner builds an internal representation of knowledge or personal interpretation of experience. This representation is open to change as its structure and interconnections form the foundation upon which other knowledge structures can be scaffolded. Successive modes of representation are developed as a person's expertise increases, and the building block for this development is the accumulation of individual cases (Boshuizen, 2013).  . . . The constructivist theory of learning does not accept the premise that different types of learning can be identified independent of the context and content of learning. . . . Cognitive apprenticeship, which reflects the collaboration between real-world problem solving and using appropriate strategies in problem-solving situations, is the key to construvist learn (Brown, Collins and Duguid, 1989; Resnick, 1987)." p.96.

'Cumulative experience' TI:ME

"Conceptual growth comes from sharing multiple perspectives and simultaneously changing our internal representations in response to those perspectives as well as through cumulative experience." p.96.

Practice hours requirement

Zwozdiak-Myers, Paula. (2012). The Teacher's Reflective Practice Handbook: Becoming an Extended Professional through Capturing Evidence-Informed Practice. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. 

https://www.routledge.com/The-Teachers-Reflective-Practice-Handbook-Becoming-an-Extended-Professional/Zwozdiak-Myers/p/book/9780415597586

"163 Days"

 INDIVIDUAL

|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC   

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

	163 Days - Hannah Hodgson
Poetry in [not in] motion

“Hannah Hodgson takes us to the paradoxical heart of poetry itself: to be held inside a pain both intensified and soothed by the sheer brilliant presence of the poet’s mind.” – Caroline Bird

Hannah Hodgon is an award-winning poet and a palliative care patient. In her compelling debut collection 163 Days, she uses a panoply of medical, legal, and personal vocabularies to explore what illness, death and dying does to a person as both patient and witness.  

163 Days is the length of Hannah’s longest period of hospitalisation to date. In this long poem, she probes various truths, personal and medical; truths which clash like a tray of dropped instruments in a silent operating theatre.

The speaker is a teenager on the cusp of adulthood. Doctors struggle to diagnose her complex conditions. Through daily, diary-like poems we see the children’s ward through Hannah’s eyes. It is decked out in primary colours. Volunteer clowns visit. At seventeen she is ‘too old’ to be here, ‘too young’ to move to the adult ward.

The mundanity of hospital life is marbled by a changing landscape of mood, hope and loss. Her symptoms are painful. She has numerous tests and procedures to keep her alive long enough to figure out what’s wrong. A gap yawns between the person she is, and the person in her medical notes.

In ‘Aftercare’, Hannah navigates the worlds of both nightclubs and hospice care as she embarks on a new version of her life as a disabled adult. 163 Days is an important collection, in which Hodgson’s true voice takes poetry into difficult places.

Listen to the BBC radio play adaptation of 163 Days on the New Creatives website here.

163 Days by Hannah Hodgson, Seren Books ISBN-13: 9781781726471
Publication Date: Monday, March 28, 2022

My source:
Hannah's book in Kirkby Lonsdale, The Book Lounge 17th February 2023.

Concept analysis - Rodgers

"The method of concept analysis has not been well understood in nursing. Most significant is the observation that nurse scholars who describe or employ the method have rarely explored the philosophical foundations and implications of conducting an analysis of a concept. As a result, it is not clear precisely how the method functions or how analysis of a concept actually contributes to further intellectual progression. While the availability of a clear conceptual definition has much appeal, the actual value of a such a definition cannot be taken as self-evident." Rodgers (1989). p.330-331.

"The method entails an initial phase, a core analysis phase, and a further analysis phase (Tofthagen & Fagerström, 2010), which according to Rodgers (2000, p. 85) includes the following overlapping activities:

1. Identifying the name and concept of interest and associated expressions.
2. Identifying and selecting the appropriate setting.
3. Collecting the data to identify:
    a. The attributes of the concept.
    b. The contextual basis of the concept.
4. Analyzing the data.
5. If appropriate, identifying an exemplar of the concept.
6. Identifying hypotheses and implications for the further development of the concept."
Näsman, Nyqvist, & Nygård (2022). p.3104.

Rodgers, B.L., Concepts, analysis and the development of nursing knowledge: the evolutionary cycle. J. Adv. Nurs. 1989:14,4,330-335.

Näsman, M., Nyqvist, F. & Nygård, M. Disentangling the Concept of Well-Being in Very Old Age Using Rodgers’ Evolutionary Concept Analysis. J Happiness Stud 23, 3101–3126 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-022-00496-4

Review: i Kinchin's Visualising Powerful Knowledge to Develop the Expert Student

If there are sources to help understand Hodges' model and even contribute and provide evidence for a 'theory' then this book is one to add to the shelf.

Consequently this is the first of several posts (and other book reviews?):

Kinchin's Visualising Powerful Knowledge to Develop the Expert Student and related books

As mentioned Kinchin's book was brought to my attention through the Threshold Concepts forum. More on this to follow. Kinchin begins by noting how academics who teach at universities are there because they are subject experts. This is not just their knowing a lot, but the way this knowledge is organised (structured) and understood. This facilitates their engagement in the field to help extend knowledge further and the discipline they teach. Kinchin cites Goldsmith et al. (1991):

"To be knowledgeable in some area is to understand the interrelationships among the important concepts in that domain." p.4.

There is an immediate opportunity here, to note that Hodges' model in providing four domains is encouraging and facilitating the identification, association, understanding (meanings) across the model's domains that for novices simultaneously increases their vocabulary.

Kinchin's book seeks to address what is often a marked gap, between academics as subject matter experts and their ability to teach or present the content of 'what they know'. While teachers (and nurse mentors) are preoccupied with a student's competence, this book also considers the competence of teachers to teach. Kinchin reports how a great deal of teaching appears designed to keep students as 'perpetual novices'. I had an image here of Benner's theory pushing from one side; while teaching custom & practice (Powerpoint, linear, chains - of theory) pushes from the other. Why are students being taught, why are they learning? Reference to tell-memorise-test-forget in order to pass exams, seems the end-game, the outcome that student are now (potentially) paying for.

At this point in writing the review, I come across an omission. There is no index, but what appears a comprehensive list of references is provided. I found what I was looking for quickly enough - reference to 'bulimic learning' on p.7. Students gorge on information only to regurgitate it for exam purposes. This means it is undigested, not learned and integrated into the student's existing knowledge base and other concurrent learning. While science is applied in terms of evidence through research, teachers often seem reluctant to apply the very same principles.

"One of the problems in moving from 'traditional' teaching models towards 'effective' models is perhaps the lack of accessible tools with which to support the change from the non-learning of inert knowledge to the meaningful learning of powerful knowledge." p.7

Teachers and teaching provoke many adages, especially in health education; the 'differences' between those who practice, those who teach and those dedicated to research who eschew teaching preferring research. As the references suggest, Kinchin cites the literature, in this case the 'politics of reluctance'. Ideally all should apply, teaching, teachers, research and researchers married and allied together. There is a tendency (as ever) to stereotype and dichotomise. Some teach because they are lousy researchers; when it should be the case that teachers teach the way they research (p.10).

Chapter 1 is "The Framework - Linking Key Ideas" central is the approach and resource provided by Novak and Symlington in 1982 using the concept map. With a small library of papers and books, Novak is in there, Tony Buzan's mind-mapping approach - which is different and other sources. From the start, examples of a concept map framework are provided pp. 3,4,6 ... While very critical of 'traditional' teaching, Kinchin is sympathetic to the reality many teachers face and empathetic of teaching as the poor cousin. There are teachers aspiring to be 'active' teachers and effect change.

to be continued...

Novak, J.D. and Symington, D.J. (1982) Concept mapping for curriculum development. Victoria Institute for Educational Research Bulletin, 48: 3–11.

Kinchin, I., (2016) Visualising powerful knowledge to develop the expert student. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

See also:

Intro post

Review Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Thanks to Brill for my review copy.

Framing a Life Animated

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic -------------------------------------------  mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group-population

(mental) Life	Animated
communication  meaning singing  dialogue family friends relationships	documentary activism awareness

My source: Whitworth, D. (2016)  The autistic boy whose life was unlocked by Disney, Arts, The Times, 13 December. p.8-9.

The Space of Origin - Foucault

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic -------------------------------------------  mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group-population

"For us, the human body defines, by natural right, the space of origin and of distribution of disease: a space whose lines, volumes, surfaces, and routes are laid down, in accordance with a now familiar geometry, by the anatomical atlas. But this order of the solid, visible body is only one way—in all likelihood neither the first, nor the most fundamental—in which one spatializes disease. There have been, and will be, other distributions of illness. When will we be able to define the structures that determine, in the secret volume of the body, the course of allergic reactions? Has anyone ever drawn up the specific geometry of a virus diffusion in the thin layer of a segment of tissue? Is the law governing the spatialization of these phenomena to be found in a Euclidean anatomy? After all, one only has to remember that the old theory of sympathies spoke a vocabulary of correspondences, vicinities, and homologies, terms for which the perceived space of anatomy hardly offers a coherent lexicon. Every great thought in the field of pathology lays down a configuration for disease whose spatial requisites are not necessarily those of classical geometry." p.3.

"The exact superposition of the ‘body’ of the disease and the body of the sick man is no more than a historical, temporary datum." p.3.

Foucault, Michel (1973). The Birth of the Clinic. New York: Pantheon Books.

compose, direct, conduct and 'dilute to taste' outcomes

In Drupal musings 12 I mentioned that the classification of nursing practice is not necessarily at the forefront of nursing's mind set against the turbulence and rush of clinical areas.* This is especially so at the moment as nurses on wards, clinics and community try to identify savings.

I am interested in classification in part as this is a raison d'être for the health career model; on a mental (cognitive) level, in practice and potentially in virtual representations of health care activities. For learners it is an extra to hold the bicycle saddle for those first turns of the pedals. Additionally, for those who have completed many rides and races (lifelong learners) they can reflect on how they got there, and plan for the next round.

As a conceptual framework then h2cm is, like classification, in the background. The model can help to compose, direct and conduct (c-d-c) nursing (health and social) care. Classification matters to ALL nurses because we need to know not only the c-d-c of nursing but the outcomes too.

If all the above is in the background, then together with classification the health career model can help differentiate nursing as a discipline and make nursing visible. We can only take heed of the adage "divide and conquer" by being able to differentiate nursing from other disciplinary contributions. Then perhaps we can truly identify and so define the facets of integrated, interprofessional and multidisciplinary care that must also be person-centred. As nurses and the team respond to the individual's trauma (assault, illness, chronic disease ...), they can also assure their combined values, which must be defined and articulated if there is to be a unified philosophy.

If the respective professions have not noticed (I am sure they have) 'professionalism' is itself under assault in terms of unique knowledge and skills, respect, power and status. To a degree this a good thing. It is also called 'progress': countering restrictive practices, improving service access and challenging institutionalised and state paternalism. Professionalism is accorded for reasons of accountability, education, responsibility, integrity and advocacy. Amid the public (mental) health disaster that we face - the professions - are needed more than ever and if the assault is taken too far ... ?

* Should you know of examples where classification IS at the forefront of nursing practice please let me know - h2cmng @ yahoo.co.uk.

Drupal musings 2: Drupalese and Nursese - help or hinder

As I repeatedly wade into the blue Drupal waters and then run out again (the water's hot) I note ongoing conversations at Drupalversity, Drupal dojo, Drupal-kata and similar forums about the challenge of learning Drupal. (I know the cure. That - is so simple, just do it: CREATE A SITE!)

On Drupalversity a comment by Becky Kinney caught my attention as Becky also refers to Drupalese. There's been discussion about how learners can make progress getting to grips with Drupal, but then because they lack prerequisite knowledge and skills the learning materials / instructions lapse into Drupalese.

Coming to Drupal is like nursing in so far as experiential learning is helpful. Any programming experience may help (or hinder), at the very least newbies (do I hate that term?) will be familiar with how websites appear to work, in the same way that would-be nurses are aware of the effects of infection, trauma, basic healing processes and treatments, what it feels like to be 'sick' to some degree, symptoms and signs. There's a point though that with a burgeoning new vocabulary of nursing, medical and care terms this challenge also becomes Nursese.

That reference above to help or hinder is similar to nurses who work as care support workers initially, or part-time. There is a risk (which should not exist these days) that prior to starting formal nurse training they may pick up bad habits. Drupal is no different in the sense that it is complex and there are several ways to achieve the same outcome, but which is the most effective, efficient, future proof, safe and secure. ...?

Hodges' model can help nurse learners, but what about Drupal learners - this one included?

Not a chance.

A conceptual framework is not going to help here. While Hodges' model does have socio-technical credentials, it is no software engineering shoe-horn, life jacket...

It will take (several) new Drupal websites to exercise the beast, my mind, fingers and what I hope is a potential community out there. Time for another paddle and reddened feet ...