The application of the triple vision implied by the Dynamic Structural Method “resolves very profound questions, very deep questions and it is worth investigating”. According to Soler Carreras, it is a method that can help to understand the complex present in which we live and build another future.

María Angélica Soler Carreras (Argentina, 1947) presented her book Nuevas Lógicas para nuevas generaciones (2022) in Parque Toledo. It is an adaptation of the Dynamic Structural Method (DSM) to take it to schools, as well as applying it to our daily lives. María Angélica is a teacher and lecturer. For years she has been dedicated to disseminating this method, devised by Mario Rodríguez Cobos (Silo), which has led her to travel to different countries in Europe, America and Africa.

We have had the opportunity to talk more in depth with her in this interview, the transcript of which is below.


Video: Álvaro Orús

TRANSCRIPT

You are now writing this book. What is the aim of the book?

The aim is to provide a simple, easy tool, a tool for a new way of thinking. We all want to enter the future. We all want to adapt to change, but little do we know how to think in a new way. You can see the great advances, but with an old head, with ways of thinking that are no longer valid or with an irrational head, which would be the worst case. We need logical guidelines and so do the new generations.

What does this new method bring to the table compared to previous methods?

Well, there are many scientific, philosophical, etc. methods. But this one has a special feature: it can be used by people from any culture. It is not based on ideologies but on the experience of thinking, so it is based on an experience that can be shared by any human being and, moreover, using its basic elements, it can be used on a daily basis. There are philosophical methods, for example, that are very interesting but require a type of reflection and process that is very difficult to implement on a daily basis. On the other hand, this method has that facility, you can implement it in everyday life but also, following its guidelines, you can carry out an extremely profound and sophisticated investigation.

We are used to thinking in black and white, good/bad… everything is based on a binary form. What does the Dynamic Structural Method add?

We have inherited the binary from the Greeks. It was a great advance at the time, we have to recognise that, but now we are outgrowing it. It is a tool, it is a dress that no longer corresponds to this stage and the triple vision is not new, it is being used by people in science, even in sociology, but it is not being used in a structured way.

What does it mean?

It means that one can make the effort to put oneself in the place of the other, to understand the position of the other, to go beyond one’s own vision or not to see the other as an enemy, at least, but I don’t have the support for it to make that, it is an attempt. Instead, thanks to this method one can have the possibility of triple thinking.

Simply, if I try to study a problem, a situation or whatever I am dealing with, inside (in its components), in its relations and in its history (in its process) … This triple vision is something that can be acquired as one uses it and it is much more complete than the simple “if I am not your friend, I am your enemy”.

In other words, at this moment it would help us to break the extreme polarisation we have reached…

Absolutely. The method allows the conjunction of opposing views, enrichment thanks to diversity, but all these desires, which are expressed socially in different fields, can be structured here, they can be given – so to speak – an umbrella of general thought that covers them, that can guide them not only in their daily dealings but also in research.

Could we say – even if it is a simplification – that it is a tool that can allow us to analyse or modify situations?

Definitely. It allows us to make a much more profound analysis because, in addition to the triple vision, it has another component that is basic: dynamics. We have inherited a binary and static way of looking at things, we can see photographs, but we don’t see transformations, and we don’t see transformations in time either. So, any analysis where this method is applied, even partially, is much more profound, and that’s where we go with the other component…

Yes, to summarise, what would be the fundamental components of this method?

In my particular synthesis, they are: the triple vision, dynamics and honesty. What do I mean by honesty? The recognition of the observer’s own point of view, because there are those who give opinions without explaining why they give them, from what interest, what moves them to see that reality from that particular perspective… and this method is very honest, it forces you to introduce, to explain the interest that moves you, the perspective you have chosen… “with respect to this situation, my opinion is the following…”.

Could you give us a simple example, how could you study an object, a phenomenon with the MED?

For example, this cup [in your hand] can be a useful object, from that perspective, from that interest… or it can be from its design.

The mug as a useful object does not conflict with the other perspective, which is the design. I can say, from the utilitarian point of view: the handle is wonderful, very comfortable, it has enough capacity, it holds the right amount of coffee I need, no more and no less… but, from the aesthetic point of view: it is minimalist, it has a suitable colour, it expresses the modernity of the latest trends… The two points of view or perspectives do not conflict. The method allows for the simultaneity of opinions, the diversity of opinions; that is to say, the point of view used by the one who is giving an opinion is made explicit or clear.

Could it also allow for the point of view of the person receiving the opinion?

Absolutely, that allows for team work, because understanding an object from different perspectives allows for a greater, deeper vision and, in addition to that, if we see it in three ways, not only from the inside, in its relationships or in its history, we will achieve a profundity of thought that we do not have at the moment. Now, irrationality is on the rise, anyone can give an opinion without any basis. You can be utterly untruthful and it is accepted. So, the problem is not irrationality, but from what perspective… If we want to think logically, if we want to achieve scientific advances and if we want to prepare generations for the world to come – a much more complex and much more sophisticated world – we cannot give them tools that already belong to a world that is dead.

In other words, it is fundamental for the construction of another future…

Obviously

Let’s talk about a subject that you touched on in the presentation here, in Parque Toledo, but which you quickly passed over. How can the MED help to construct the we, that which is a kind of intuition, but of whose experience we can say little or which is under construction?

Yes, it is under construction, it belongs to the new sensibility. The human species, because we are connected, even if we don’t realise or value this contact, we are so interdependent with each other that we also need ways to understand this moment, the process, with a new head, the we, the collective thought, in the possibility of a species becoming conscious of itself.

As such, as a species, not as individuals?

Yes, some things are beginning to emerge. We are seeing the interdependence we have between continents thanks to COVID, but it’s a bit late. We are all human beings, who lived through difficult circumstances.

The point is this thinking, being able to embrace diversity, being able to see processes, being able to define futures… We are not talking about soothsayers, we are talking about processes that are studied with rationale, so that if you know the stages of a process, you can come to conclusions. This can really allow a new way of structuring ourselves, of relating to each other and of moving towards the future, with coherent projects that we didn’t have before.

How do you plan to work with the book?

My perspective is limited, I’m a teacher. So, the most possible field is that of schools, fundamentally for teachers themselves because, at the moment, the burden they have, the pressure they are under is enormous and they can hardly fulfil the objectives they set themselves occasionally, which was really to provide knowledge, to provide possibilities, to provide research… There are many ways of describing it, but the professional vocation exists and is in the hearts of many teachers and professors. So, I see that if the teacher can implement it in himself and can rediscover his reality, understand his situation better by using these few tools… we are talking only about the triple vision, the dynamics, the recognition of self-interest…. If he starts to recognise that this is useful for himself, and transfer it to the students so that they can understand processes in science, humanities, any subject… To be able to apply this is a jewel… Because also the students feel like they are receiving something not expected or wanted and that they have to memorise, sometimes, and this would give them the possibility to open their heads to new research.

You were saying before that, for a new future, for the formation of children who are born now, of children who are teenagers, who need a different way of thinking… the binary method is no longer valid for them… The binary method no longer works and it is no longer a good method.

The binary no longer works and it is curious because there are many pedagogues who have been making this possible since the work in infants. There are many pedagogues who have taken the steps. But here there is a kind of umbrella, which allows this to bear fruit and move forward and, in fact, for a secondary school student who can open up to investigating things, who can ask herself about her own interests… because many finish secondary school without knowing what they wanted and simply [ask themselves] what I am good at, where I got the best marks, is that a vocational decision? then learn to look within themselves, their potential, their interests to develop activities and have been able to do it minimally with some examples…

We have talked about the part as a teacher, but you also said that the teacher can start with him/herself and that’s where he/she will see the usefulness. Is it really that easy to apply it to one’s daily life?

My grandmother used to say that a sting doesn’t give pleasure [Laughter]. If there is a need to think in a new way, to approach things in a different way, if there is an extreme tiredness with the old ways of solving things… I think that is a great motor and that motor exists at the moment. That is to say, this is a society that remains as a whole but that is generating such an enormous void in people that they are asking themselves much more existential questions, much more profound questions than those that were asked generations ago. I hope that this is the driving force. It’s not a general or used or known theme, but this resolves very profound questions, very, very deep questions, and it’s worth investigating.