Socialized reality insight
Contents
Five Insights: Socialized Reality
Interests
- Truth
- Reality Free choice
- Rational choice
- Epistemology
- Information, knowledge
- Pursuit of knowledge
- Social creation of truth and meaning
Scope
This ideogram is only a placeholder. The real thing should be a house with failing foundation image – but we can talk about that.
We look at the fundamental assumptions which we use to create truth and meaning. Which are, needless to say, the foundations of all we call "culture", and also more...
The point here is to see the visible, mushrooming... cracks in the walls as just natural consequences of a faulty foundation
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Insight
The point here is threefold:
- what we called "reality" is really our own that is, our culture's creation
- "The correspondence with reality" of our ideas or models is not – however it may seem – something that can be rationally verified
- "The correspondence with reality" is – or needs to be seen as – a pseudo-epistemology; something which appears and works as a real epistemology (valuation of knowledge based on knowledge of knowledge) – and yet keeps us bound to myths, prejudices, the power structure...
Corollary 1
"Reality" is a turf! This is one of the core points that Bourdieu left us. It's coded in the formula he keeps repeating, something like "the habitus is a structured structure and structuring structure ... The point is that once you structure the people's reality to be so and so (king is God's ordained ruler, and he owns it all) – then this structure structures the reality for the next king to come. He doesn't need to do it again.
The Odin the Horse vignette comes in here to point to the (potential or actual) absurdity of the turf strife. There may be NO "real" gains whatsoever in victories... only symbolic ones...
Corollary 2
Academic tradition has brought us to the mirror
Socrates started the tradition of epistemology – by instructing people to question the roots of their beliefs. Especially when they are power based. Galilei and others improved the method. The point here is that we need to do this again. Not be busy, but come back to basic questions of meaning and purpose. Stop and self-reflect.
Reversals
- Truth: It can be fixed – by using truth by convention.
- Reality – Without thinking, from the traditional culture we have overtaken a myth incomparably more dangerous and disruptive than the myth of creation...
- Information, knowledge – become implicit... become aspects of things... Free choice, rational choice – the assumptions that served as foundation for some of our core institutions have proven to be false. We are not rational choice makers. We may become that – when people are properly informed, and taught proper use of knowledge. Educated to rely on knowledge of knowledge, not on appearances. How far we are from that blessed state of affaires! Just look at all the advertising...
- Epistemology – It becomes design epistemology. The purpose of depicting reality as it really is falls down. The purpose where knowledge is a core component of our core systems rises and shines.
- Pursuit of knowledge – knowledge is pursued through a dialog, not discussion; we keep our gestalts fluid and loose...
- Social creation of truth and meaning acquires a whole new meaning...
Story
Bourdieu in Algeria. He saw two processes.
The first was the "modernization" of Algeria. As the war ended, and independence resulted – a completely new set of dependencies emerged. The result was the same. But in a much more subtle way!
The second was the destruction of culture. The Kabyle people ...
This of course goes quite deep – into personal foundation of knowing. Instead of holding on to our beliefs, we keep them fluid. We remain creative... We co-create...
Federation, not puzzle solving
Multiple versions are possible, and also necessary. Keeping them relatively – yet not obligatorily – consistent and coherent is what we are calling knowledge federation, isn't it?
Design epistemology
Design epistemology – information as systemic component
Information is not only, or even primarily, the facts about... The lion's share is implicit...
Keywords
Prototypes
The Knowledge Federation prototype is a complete model of an academic reality on the other side – created to help the self-reflection, and the transition to the new paradigm.
Key point dialog
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