What Characterizes Postformal Thought?

Abstract

This chapter describes a model of adult postformal cognitive operations that extends the thinking of Piaget to describe some intellectual developments that may be unique to mature adults. Postformal operations as described here permit the adult thinker who continues his or her logical development to operate adaptively in a world of relative choices. They also permit the thinker to overcome the fragmentation and isolation inherent in trying to know the emotional, interpersonal, and spiritual aspects of the world through abstract, formal logic alone.

For every perceivable phenomenon, devise at least six explanations that indeed explain this phenomenon. There are probably 60, but if you devise six this will sensitize you to the complexity of the universe, the variability of perception. It will prevent you from fixing on the first plausible explanation as the Truth.

Paula Underwood (Native American Tradition)