I
The single most powerful capacity of the intellect is to “make sense” of the complex world around us.
To “make sense” means that we are able to deal with a huge mass of sensory inputs and organize/ structure/ classify and prioritize those inputs so that we are able to respond in an orderly way to the world around us.
Why is ‘sense-making’ such an important function?
Because ‘sense–making’ gives us a way to respond to the world around us. It gives us a way to navigate reality.
It gives us, most importantly, a way to structure, and make meaning of the numerous individual ‘encounters’ of our life.
II
‘Sense-making’ is a “reflexive activity”.
This means that it integrates the ‘objective’ world outside us with the ‘subjective’ world within us.
This ‘reflexive activity’ results in a new form of knowledge within us called reflexive knowledge. Reflexive knowledge = f(objective knowledge, subjective knowledge).
III
Reflexive knowledge is best represented in the form of ‘sense-making maps’
‘Sense–making maps’ are cognitive descriptions of reality. They are ‘representations of reality’ that enable an individual to understand or organize reality in a particular way.
Clearly, there can be more than one representation of reality. Thus, there can be more than one sense-making map of the same situation.
The test or measure of a sense-making map is its ability to be used by an individual to (i) reframe identity (ii) interpret or model a situation (iii) provide a logic or a narrative to a series of experiences, or (iv) give a new impetus or meaning to a set of behaviors.
Sense-making maps are the language of human engagement with reality.
They can therefore be called tools for the ‘design of life’ by individuals and collectives in society