Eric F. Graf

 

Pageonelit.com: Where did you grow up? Tell us about your professional background.

Eric Graf: I was born June 26 1924 in Germany. I grew up in Augsburg, a city with a 2000 year history. Being exposed to history by the constant presence of historic sites, allows, if one is so inclined, for a quite special experience of that connectedness in which history and presence fuse. After graduating from secondary school, I became a professional actor and worked for 8 years at a number of Theaters in Germany. During that time I developed an interest in the awareness processes that determine musicality, started to teach voice and "graduated" from writing poems for my own enjoyment to writing short stories for journals. It was the interest in musicianship and writing that led me to start my university-studies in the area of musicology, literature and philosophy. In the pursuit of those answers I was trying to find for myself, I soon changed to psychology and sociology as the central areas of my studies, and, having become interested in existential philosophy, attended the University of Zürich. The combination of the studies in Psychology under Professor Wilhelm Keller and of Sociology under Professor von Schelting together with my studies in Philosophy generated what became for me the central topic of my life-time interests: What is the foundation, and what is the nature of the experience that is the awareness of being "I". It lead to my doctoral thesis "Das Ich als sociale Gestalt" ("I" as a social phenomenon). 1958 I came to the States, actually to write my thesis away from those conditions that were familiar to me as my daily life. I started to teach at then East Carolina College, and stayed there for three and a half years, returned to Zürich to finish my degree and returned again to the States. I joined the faculty of Ithaca College in 1963, was the chairperson of the Department of Psychology for 22 years and retired 1994 from teaching (I am now Professor emeritus of the Department). The last eight years I spend writing "The Management of Fate". The Management of Fate can be purchased online at www.upublish.com/books/graf.htm

Visit Eric Graf online at http://www.behavior-economic-ecology.info/

 

Pageonelit.com: Why did your write THE MANAGEMENT OF FATE?

Eric Graf: THE MANAGEMENT OF FATE explicates the concept-system that as "Behavior-Economic Ecology" evolved from my thesis "I as a social phenomenon". As such concept-system it is intended to generate an alternative to the machine-model determined formulations in Psychology. This machine-model-determined is dependent upon the cause and effect paradigm for the definition of behavior, which paradigm – in my opinion – does not adequately reflect the dynamic nature of the phenomenon of Life. We have developed the tendency to define Life in the terminology of Biochemistry, which does not really allow for an understanding of behavior, and even less for an understanding of what we experience as the mind, since both in this definition become understood as being "caused" by the "biochemical entities" that constitute "the organism", rather than as manifestations of the process Life itself.

The concept-system "Behavior-Economic Ecology" is based on one axiom: Life is a process that, in its character of being incorporative-recursive, generates its manifestations as individual organism-processes. Given this axiom, the existence of the individual organism-process can be analyzed in terms of three dimensions: The to-the-process-Life-implicit dynamic, the condition-constellation that is the organism-process as which it exists in its existence-moment and the condition-constellation under which it manages this its evolving existence in its existence-moment-adequate process-equilibration-resolutions, which as such then are recognizable as the "behavior of the organism".

Implicit to the process Life in its respective organism-process-manifestations is that awareness of its conditions which defines the existence-moment-determining behavior-orientation. It allows the process to adapt to this existence-moment in the to-the-incorporative-process-implicit adaptation-dynamic of utmost gain by least expenditure. These two concepts, however, have to be understood in that character in which they are defining the basic principle of the process-dynamic itself. In this context of the process Life they define each other in their equation as they define – and are defined by – the existence-moment orientation-awareness, establishing so the recursivity character of the process. The relation between the condition-constellations as which and under which the existence in its moment is taking place is one of polarity, not one that can be understood in terms of cause and effect. It is in the so generated functions – in which Life in its diverse manifestations as individual organism-processes evolves – that Life, in this adaptation, generates the for-the-respective- organism-processes-adequate ecological systems, which in turn in their interrelatedness with those other ecological systems which are created in the existences of other organism-processes, define that ecological system-constellation that is the nature of Life.

I chose the book's title THE MANAGEMENT OF FATE to reflect this to-the-process-Life-implicit character of its evolving in its manifestations "organism-process": In its incorporative-recursive functions, it generates itself from its existence as one cell, given the polarity of its condition-constellations that are its fate, into the complexity that as organism-process defines the existence in its individual uniqueness, while it, at the same time, generates in these functions which define its existence-moment, that condition-constellation that becomes its this-moment-determining "world".

Although these principles, defining the nature of Life, are true for any form in which this process Life may occur, the book's primary topic is the analysis of those management-functions in which the human existence creates itself as the manifold ecological systems as which the human existences may occur.

To understand the effects these adaptation-dynamic-defined ecological systems have upon that ecological system that is the nature of Life, we have to examine the experiences in which, and out of which, evolves what we recognize as "the human mind". This means, we have to explore that dynamic in which this human mind generates those structure-systems of experience that determine its orientation in its adaptation to its existence. This exploration is conducted in the discussion of 5 topics, the two major topics being Human Sexuality and Language. Human Sexuality is examined in the context of its importance in the individual organism-process-existence as that communication-manifestation that generates its experience-character of existence-excitation-communality. In this character it is the foundation of the evolving mind-experiences. In the communality-experience develops that polarity that constitutes Language, in its divers functions generating the interpretation of existence in the in-this-interpretation-formulated-world. This Language-polarity is one of language-communication and Language-orientation. It gives rise to community- and society-defining experience-structures, both with their respective, implicit reality-experiences, and their defining modalities of verification, while so defining the logic that characterizes the human awareness-function-systems that exist as the "human mind". The in this orientation-awareness "mind" generated adaptation-functions – in their positive as well as their negative characteristics – define our place in the ecological system that is nature.

 

Pageonelit.com: Explain the statement ---..."we do not have a free will...."

Eric Graf: I don't think I can answer this question to your, or to my own satisfaction in the frame of this interview and its obvious space and time limitations. The question after all is most central to the understanding of the nature of the human existence in our time. The phrase of "having a free will" contains two confusing aspects. They are, and have always been, at the core of the controversies, with which we are confronted when we try to explain the human mind-experience. The first one is: What does having a free will mean, in terms of who has that which then is a free will? The second one relates to the problem of what does "free" mean in conjunction with willfulness? Both answers to those questions would have to be contradictions in terms: That free will one has would not be "free" if its possessor is the "organism" as such. This free will would have to be a function of the organism, as some type of a faculty this organism possesses. It therefore would have to be determined by the specific nature of the possessing organism. Additionally, if this "faculty" is "free" it would have to express some type of arbitrariness that would then have to define its un-determinedness. Arbitrariness contradicts the understanding expressed in the concept of "willfulness". On the other hand however, the experience of "free will" is undeniable, and the attempt to negate it, by assuming it to be an illusion, at no time was able to overcome this experiential self-evidence.

The experience of "free will" can only be explored within the context of the nature of the awareness-system Language and its polarity of Language-orientation and language-communication: It is a system of awareness-structures that generate for-a-particular-"We-experience" the, this "We"sustaining, communality of interpretation of existence that defines the respect mind-experiences.

For the organism-process, defined by the polarity of the awareness-condition-constellations as which and those under which it exists, it is the existence-moment-constellation that is the measure of its adaptation to its existence: It determines the decision-character of this moment. As such, the orientation-constellation constitutes the organism-process-moment-defining reality-experience, which is verified when the adaptation "works".

The Anthropos-modality of existing of the human organism-process is generating itself in the awareness-structures that are the Language-polarity. It does so as the interpretation of the existence that as the "I-We-experience" is generating itself in the communication-function as orientation-function, which in turn defines the communication-topics. As such interpretation, Language-orientation becomes the central (although not the fundamental) orientation-experience that defines the moment of existence of the organism-process in its anthropos-modality. It is so generating the awareness-polarity of organism-process-moment and interpretation-of-this-moment out of the language-polarity-determined existence-interpretation. In these experience-structures the communication-defined interpretation-orientation becomes the measure of the existence-moment that defines the adaptation of the organism to its existence. This anthropos-adaption-reality-experience therefore depends upon the verification in two verification-modalities: It has to work and it has to make sense in the Language-polarity. The decision-process that is the orientation-moment thus is for the anthropos-existence defined by the polarity of organism-process-constellation and its communality-defined interpretation-constellation. Both - by the nature of the communication-function as orientation-synchronization – are awareness-in-self-evidence of their respective experiences. It is on account of this self-evidence-character of the interpretation that the "I-We-experience" acquires in the communality-orientation-constellation the character of being the ethical imperative defining this orientation. As such, and in the self-evidence-experience of the polarity organism-process-constellation and existence-interpretation the decision-process acquires the experience-character of its own willfulness. This anthropos-modality characterizes the existence-experience of family, extended family, clan or tribe in which communication as orientation-synchronization is possible.

For this existence-modality the reality-experience will gain an additional dimension whenever it evolves into that exploration which – in the modality of information-exchange between communality-defined communities – allows for what becomes the society-orientation. In it – out of the recognition of common interests between communities – evolves a purpose-defined orientation that characterizes any commonwealth-awareness: To generate, through the investment of the community-defined property, a commonwealth-orientation-system-experience that allows for the development of common wealth. The commonwealth-defining orientation-structures are not verified anymore in the self-evidence of the existence-experience as such, but have to be justified in, and through, that discourse that determines the degree to which these structures are serving their accepted, intended purposes. In this dimension the anthropos willfulness has to change, in its adaptation to the commonwealth-condition-constellation, into the anthropos-mind-modality of orientation. The communality defined, community-defining ethical imperative as the central experience of the anthropos-orientation still has to determine the behavior-moment-decision, but as the commonwealth-experience, the ethical imperative has to lose its two central characters that define the Anthropos-modality: Its community-defining character and with it its self-evidence- character. The in the communality-experience-generated decision in its anthropos-willfulness becomes as decision in the anthropos-mind modality of the commonwealth-experience the ethical imperative that is free of its self-evidence-character: It becomes the I-defined decision in the I-defining responsibility for the maintenance of the anthropos-existence in the commonwealth-defining polarity of the "community We" and what becomes so the purpose-defined "commonwealth We". It is as this free will-experience in the decision-process that the mind-orientation acquires its third verification-modality: The decision-orientation not only has to work in the adaptation of the organism-process to its existence-moment, and not only has to make sense in the polarity of Language-orientation and language-communication, it also has to be verified in the experience of "being me".

 

Pageonelit.com: What's next...

Eric Graf: I don't think I will write another book. This one took me 45 years to develop it. The book is written as the introduction of a concept-system that allows analysis of the human existence independent of the specifics of the condition-constellation that define this human existence in its specific actuality of taking place. I intend to establish in the very near future a website that should allow for opinions/responses, and shall allow for opinion-exchanges and their discussions between those readers who are interested in such exchange. The web site will be: www:Behavior-Economic-Ecology.info