Re: All the way with Piaget

Dewey Dykstra, Jr. (dykstrad who-is-at bsumail.idbsu.edu)
Thu, 14 May 1998 13:44:20 -0600

(No one is insisting that anyone agree with this rc view here, just that
one try to understand the point of view. Then, you can decide whatever you
want. But, to decide "yes or no" before one has understood a view is to
decide "yes or no" about another view and not the one in question.)

>In this kind of account there are indeed things, objects, prior to our
>knowing them, but their existence, their reality, is a social, practical
>matter.

In the rc view this can be the perspective of one who already "knows" these
'prior existing' things as one has already subjectively constructed them,
but it cannot be the view of one who has not already constructed them, such
as a new or novice member of the culture.

>If we distinguish between knowing and being we can see that both
>knowledge and reality are constructed, but that knowing something doesn't
>somehow magically make it real.

Since I believe that Ernst's view does distinguish being (in what he calls
the *onotolgical* world) and knowing and that the quotes suggest he is
saying that our explanatory knowledge which we construct to fit our
experiences and to be compatible with our needs is constructed. I don't
believe that Ernst has suggested that "knowing something ...somehow
magically makes it real" except in the rc context of the relationship of
any knowledge to the "world out there."

>Reality is not subjective; it is social,
>intersubjective. Cultural, historical. Individual acts of knowing occur
>within a field of activity that constitutes the real--including the reality
>of the knowing subject; and these change over time. At the same time, each
>person can and does take a stand on the culture in which they live--and
>question its reality.
>
>That's all I was trying to say!

I'm not sure how to respond to this last bit except to point out that it is
another view, with certain elements which seem compatible with rc to me.

Thanks for creating the opportunity to respond.

Dewey

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Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)385-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)385-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418 Fax: (208)385-4330
Boise State University dykstrad who-is-at bsumail.idbsu.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper

"Physical concepts are the free creations of the human mind and
are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external
world."--A. Einstein in The Evolution of Physics with L. Infeld,
1938.
"Every [person's] world picture is and always remains a construct
of [their] mind and cannot be proved to have any other existence."
--E. Schrodinger in Mind and Matter, 1958.
"Don't mistake your watermelon for the universe." --K. Amdahl in
There Are No Electrons, 1991.
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