Learning – Symmathesy | Passionate Meanderings

Introduction

Most of our knowledge of learning is based on our experiences in school. And, much more often than not, these school experiences are not very good examples of how we learn. In general, these school experiences are based on being passive receivers of information, which is often isolated and disconnected from the contexts that make this information important.

However, learning actually appears to be a characteristic process of all living things and living systems. As with all adaptations, learning is critical to the survival of all living things — from bacteria to mammals. Without learning, organisms would just be like ping pong balls bouncing around without any ability to make decisions or learn from experiences. And, as silly as this idea may seem, it's not all that far from the mechanistic notions that have been at the core of biology for that last 350 years or so. Fortunately, biology is beginning to change, but these previous mechanistic ways of thinking insidious and resistant to change.

In Nora Bateson’s book, Small Arcs of Larger Circles: Framing Through Other Patterns, she suggests a fundamental and critically important perspective of learning. She calls her new perspective or theory “symmathesy,” which translated from the Greek roots means something like “learning together” or “mutual learning.” Her refined definition is “mutual contextual learning.” What you may notice about this definition is that it has carefully avoided including references to people or to individual organisms of any kind. The idea here is that learning occurs in contexts. And by contexts, Nora means an individual person or organism of any kind, a social grouping of people or other organisms, an ecosystem, a nation, a business, a culture, and so forth. The other part of this learning is that the learning is mutual. Very little, if any, learning occurs in a vacuum. We learn through our interactions and contact with other contexts, such as other people, places, etc.

The detailed features of symmathesy may not be what you expect. From our school experiences, we typically think of learning as something basically disconnected from ourselves. We have “learned” to read, write, do arithmetic, and to memorize a wide array of information about geography, history, science, and so forth. But, symmathesy is more fundamental than this sort of learning.

Moss growing on Redwood trees at Multnomah Falls, Oregon. Photo by Jeff Bloom (2014)

Symmathesy is relational learning. It involves learning how to interact and relate with other contexts. Like the moss growing on the tree, both the moss and tree are learning how to live with one another. In our own learning, we learn how to relate to other people, how to function in the contexts in which we live, and so forth. However, symmathesy functions at different levels of scale. Our bodies are comprised of different systems, such as our immune system, circulatory system, digestive system, nervous system, skeletal system, and so on. Each of these systems are contexts that mutually learn from one another in order to function as a whole “meta” system. And, for the most part, we are completely unaware of the symmathesetic learning that is continually occurring in our own bodies. As a side note here, we should realize that our medical systems do very good and helpful things up to a point, but they run into problems when they ignore the intertwining and inseparable nature of this meta-system called the human body.

The nature and dynamics of symmathesy involve the features depicted in the diagram above. I’ll provide a brief description of these features here, but please read Nora’s chapter on this topic. However, the whole book actually explores and describes the nature and dynamics of symmathesy.

Calibration involves learning how to adjust to certain situations. Learning how to walk, drive, and ride a bicycle involve calibration. A simplistic example is how loudly and how much we talk in social settings. Am I talking too loudly, too softly, too quickly, too slowly, and am I talking too much? Usually, we are not explicitly or consciously thinking about these issues, but we are calibrating the way we talk on the fly. I have been noticing how dogs do the same thing. Some dogs, like some people, are very good at calibrating their play barking and play engagements. They adjust the intensity with which they bark and play to the other dogs’ size, to their psychological states — like timid vs. intense players or a runners vs. a wrestlers– and to how well developed the relationships are.

Sylar and Mugetsu, the Doberman, all teeth play between best friends. Photo by Jeff Bloom (2016)

Play is associated with exploring, which in terms of symmathesy is not some structured and planned activity. Play by oneself or with others is a way of finding out the limits of what is possible or finding out about the way certain things work — like skipping stones on a lake. Play is a fundamental process of learning and is central to developing relationships and developing trust. Both people and dogs engage in various forms of play while developing close relationships.

We function within multiple contexts, including the contexts of meaning, knowledge, and culture that we carry with us. As we brush up against or enter new contexts, we are learning, as when we have chance encounters in coffee shops or travel to new cultures, start a new job, or explore new places. We filter and morph our perceptions and experiences through lenses of bias. These biases can be the obvious ones of racism or sexism, but most biases are much more subtle. These are the biases of cultural knowledge and personal experiences, as well as a large variety of assumptions, expectations, fears, and aesthetic attractions or repulsions. The boundaries of contexts are the points of contact, where symmathesetic learning occurs. These boundaries can be our personal and intimate spaces, the fuzzy borders of our social and cultural contexts, work contexts, or experiential limits. For forests, the boundaries can be what are called the ecotones or the transitional borders between forest and field, forest and lake, or forest and power line easement. But, the forest’s boundaries also can be the edges of prior experience with climate. As temperatures rise, the forests are rubbing up against new conditions and limits of tolerance. Stochastic processes are those randomly emerging events and “ideas." However, stochastic processes also include a selective process that acts as both a filter and a selector. A gene mutation, the making of a new connection, a random encounter, and an unexpected change are elements of stochastic processes, as are the seemingly endless array of random thoughts that pop up. Many of these random events and thoughts are ignored or dismissed without even noticing, while others are selected and acted upon . They may present new problems and challenges or new possibilities. But, along with play, stochastic processes can be sources of creativity and new possibilities. Time and timing are basic to all dynamics and processes. Sequences, cycles, and loopings of all kinds are manifestations of time. Timing is critical to the way systems function, including the anticipation of future events based on past experiences. Marine snails that live on marsh grasses move up and down the grass in timing with the tides. If a clump of marsh grass is moved along with its snail companions to a laboratory where there are no tidal fluctuations, the snails will continue to move up and down with the same rhythm. And, the grasses, I am sure, live with the expectation of the snails’ movements, as well.

Symmathesy is not just about how we learn as individuals, but about how all living things and all living systems learn. Such learning occurs at the points of contact between one entity or context and one or more other entities or contexts at all levels of scale — from within cells to between ecosystems.

Brief Explorations

I. Symmathesy in Dogs' Play

In the video, below, two dogs are playing together for the first time. For dogs, play is a critically important activity for building relationships. And, symmathesy or mutual contextual learning permeates all of play. The video is only 34 seconds long, but should provide lots of opportunity for you to explore some of the features and dynamics of symmathesy.