Re: weather/climate::individual/social

Gordon Wells (gwells who-is-at oise.on.ca)
Wed, 24 Apr 1996 14:57:10 -0400 (EDT)

Comparing the climate/weather and zoom lens metaphors, Jim Martin
suggests that the former deals with levels of abstraction and the latter
with levels of generality. For my part, I'm not sure that they are so
different. But I have to confess that the zoom lens metaphor has some
serious limitations, unless it has built into it a device for
interpreting what it "sees". The question is: would it need quite
different devices as it changed focus from, say individual to small
group at work to school in community/school district setting, or would a
single device suffice?

In somewhat the same vein, does "knowledge" have the same meaning at
these different depths of focus?

Gordon Wells, gwells who-is-at oise.on.ca
OISE, Toronto.