Bill Whitehouse

The set of statements -- collectively and individually -- in the main body of Mapping Mental Spaces constitutes something of a mental exercise. Perhaps, what is most important about this exercise – as with any such exercise -- is that an individual engage the indicated process and critically reflect on not only what is being said by me but, as well, critically reflect on what is going on within you, the reader, as you work your way through the material.

 Whether one agrees or disagrees with what is being expressed through the following material is, in many ways, irrelevant. The object of the exercise is to induce a reader to engage, analyze, question, reflect upon, critique, and improve on (where necessary) the process of mapping mental spaces.

 There are no definitive answers given here. There are, however, a lot of possibilities which are presented for consideration.

 One cannot read this document like a novel. Any given numbered premise or set of premises may require considerable time and effort, so, the engagement process is best pursued through rigor, diligence, and patience.

 The format of Mapping Mental Spaces is, in part, homage to, or an acknowledgment of Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein. However, there is no one-to-one mapping correspondence between the numbered premises in Mapping Mental Spaces and Wittgenstein’s system of numbering premises in his work.

 More than thirty years ago, I engaged the Tractatus. Because there were many issues in Wittgenstein’s work that I considered problematic, Mapping Mental Spaces is, in a sense, something of a response in kind to the Tractatus.

 Going through Wittgenstein’s exercise induced me to begin thinking about a variety of issues which have continued to haunt the corridors of my mind over the more than three decades that have passed since my initial reading of the Tractatus. Perhaps, the present work may help prompt readers to become involved in a process of a similar nature.

Mapping Maental Spaces consists of about 50 pages of a normal size book.

Bill Whitehouse gradated with honors from Harvard University. He also earned a doctorate in education from the University of Toronto. He has published more than twelve works, including: The Essence of September 11th, Evolution on Trial, The Chaco Canyon Tapes, The New/Old Common Sense and the Rights of Human Beings, and They Shoot Schools Don't They?