Dare To Inquire: Agreement    
 Agreement4 comments
16 Mar 2004 @ 20:41, by Bruce Kodish

"The meaning constructed by the receiver of the text is the same in all details and implications as that constructed by the sender only if the two have identical cognitive systems--that is, never."
--Sydney Lamb

This reminds me of what my friend, teacher and colleague Kenneth G. Johnson used to say:"To communicate is to be misunderstood."

I call this Johnson's Corollary of Murphy's Law.

Does this mean that communication, agreement, concord, etc. are impossible?

Hardly. Just that those who expect misunderstanding, in even the simplest situations, may have less disappointment and better communication results than those who don't.

What do you think?

[< Back] [Dare To Inquire]

Category:  

4 comments

16 Mar 2004 @ 21:58 by Ge Zi @24.126.196.158 : witnesses
A nice demonstration for the differences in cognitive systems is the ten witnesses of an accident that more or less describe ten different accidentes. We accept that in a way, mostly when the situation and people (witnesses) are fairly far removed from us.
But I really understood it once when two people that were very close to me and that I though I knew described a situation (and acted upon) that I could not recognise as the same situation. What I learned then was that I was just a third system of cognitive abilities, because with two equally valid description I could not decide what "really" transpired.
This is currently driven home the really hard way when looking at different descriptions of the workd - from bush's war on terror to the extremest conspiracy stories claiming bush's only interest in the middle east oil. I can not tell! Absolutely not! Even if I don't assume there is intent to cheat. So, I receive communication, but in the meantime I know that there is misunderstanding, and so my solution must be to just take it anecdotal, without any inherant importance.
I am in a dilemma here, because I lost all my means of collecting data. At least the way I used to collect them.
It's really getting interesting...  

17 Mar 2004 @ 16:53 by bkodish : Wandering in the Wilderness
My purpose in bringing this issue up is not to let people wander in the wilderness of post-modernist indeterminism.

Although I accept that every statement about the world is only probable to some degree--I emphasize "to some degree."

Some claims qualify as more probable than others. The 'sun will rise'(or as Fullerians prefer "the earth will rise" is only probable, but I will bet on it.  

18 Mar 2004 @ 16:50 by Ge Zi @24.126.196.158 : reality
I agree on all accounts, even though my interpretation might be a little off. For one I think there is a very strong determinism and the one determining is the viewer, and by viewer I mean "I", "ME", "MYSELF" because I am the only viewer I know about and how he perceives. Of somebody outside of me I don't even know if he/she even perceives at all.

Now, if there are other perceivers beside me, then these indiviuals and I have some kind of agreement and to the degree that we do agree that what we perceive will be real. so the reality is only 'to a degree' real as we don't completely agree. we really agree on that table, so it hurts everybody who runs into it, but god is not so much agreed upon in our days, so some people can go through a whole life without ever perceiving him/her.

And I guess we pretty much agree upon the earth-rise - so - yes - it probably will happen again tomorrow morning.

G  

24 Mar 2004 @ 14:35 by bkodish : This goes for intended 'meanings' too.
The 'reality' of what someone else says or writes falls under this too.

The post-modernists tend to go too far by exaggerating the role of the interpreter and leaving out the speaker's/writers intentions and the structure of the text itself.

As the late Neal Postman pointed out,"You can 'deconstruct' Mein Kampf until doomsday and it will not occur to you [if you have any sense] that the text is a paean of praise to the Jewish people."  

Your Name:
Your URL: (or email)
Subject:       
Comment:
For verification, please type the word you see on the left:

Other entries in
3 Dec 2007 @ 05:39: "We Will Survive"
12 Apr 2004 @ 12:24: Passover Perspective from an Israeli
8 Aug 2003 @ 20:42: Garden Haiku
1 Aug 2003 @ 10:33: Emerson On Blogging To Purpose

[< Back] [Dare To Inquire] [PermaLink]?  [TrackBack]?