Reply To: What is FOSIL?

[Chris Foster Participant]

“A map is not the territory” (Korzybski, 1994, p. 58).  FOSIL is a map of the inquiry process.  Like all maps, it is an abstraction, a simplification of reality.  It shows the stages inquirers go through, allowing the map reader to anticipate areas that might – to extend the metaphor a little further than perhaps it deserves – be a bit boggy or steep.  However, the FOSIL framework should not be mistaken for the inquiry process itself.