The Life and Behavior of Living Organisms

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The Life and Behavior of Living Organisms A General Theory

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Elliott Jaques

ISBN: 0-275-97501-0

ISBN-13: 978-0-275-97501-2

DOI:

296 pages

Praeger Publishers

Publication: 12/30/2001

List Price: $110.95 (UK Sterling Price: £76.95)

Availability: In Stock

Media Type: Hardcover

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

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Description: 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.

Table of Contents:

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

About the Author: ELLIOTT JAQUES is Visiting Research Professor in Management Sciences at George Washington University. He has been honored by awards from the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Armed Services and the Consulting Psychoanalytical Division of the American Psychological Association. He is the author of 21 previous books.

LCC Class: 150


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