08-03-2020, 09:07 PM
(08-03-2020, 05:19 PM)TeacherinExile Wrote:
- What attracted you to S&H theory in the first place?
- What doubts do you have about the theory, with respect to either process or its conclusions?
- What would it take to disabuse you of the theory completely (i.e., the dealbreaker)?
1. I was intrigued by S&H’s theory because of how ambitious it was in trying to explain the generational archetypes, and having studied personality archetypes previously, there seemed to be some overlap between the two. I also wanted a tool to see where we were headed in the future. I was always a fan of using the past to try and get a glimpse of the future. I felt that learning this theory would organise some of my thoughts and perhaps give me new insight.
2. Doubts would be whether this theory is standing the test of time right now. I had already made clear that at least for me, my empirical observations don’t seem to match up with the timing in the theory. I don’t really have issues with the fundamental theory at the moment, but some of the inter-archetype relationships seem a bit shaky.
3. A dealbreaker would be if it becomes clear the generations aren’t the main cause of turnings, or there is a significant flaw in the Prophet-Nomad-Hero-Artist dynamics that invalidates the theory. I believe if our empirical evidence does not match up with the theory (if the timing is very very wrong, or the generations no longer come in sequence) some part of it will be invalidated; the whole theory will probably need major reconsideration or be totally replaced at that time.