>Sorry if I caused you any distress, Edouard...
Definitely not! :-) I suppose the reason I felt compelled to respond to
Eva's comments is that I'm definitely drawing mostly from my
philosophical training. That's what I clearly enjoy most and it does in
my mind offer the "high ground" from which to survey the general
landscape.
The problem with Philosophy really stems from it's historical roots as
the "dust cloud" out of most of the sciences emerged as planets (to use a
solar system metaphor.) On the view, Philosophy is the belt of comets
beyond the orbit of pluto. That provides a great view of the solar
system as a whole, but makes it very difficult to count the number of
dust specs on the mirror of the Hubble Telescope.
So Philosophy has to paint the world in broad brush strokes and will
invariably fail to get the fine details exactly right. Yet, success for
the philosopher depends on being in the ballpark. So I felt obliged to
show that I was.
Because "pure Philosophy" (as opposed to its many subdisciplines) cannot
have a precise method and practice, it does reveal something of the "air"
that we cannot see in other scientific enterprises. Philosophy is to
scholarship what improvisation is to music - you make your method as you
go along. Yet, like improvisation, it cannot have the polish of a work
of art composed, reviewed, and finally refined through post-production.
In a way, the beauty and essence of this list has been to allow us to get
a glimpse into the process by which the scholarly works we ultimately
publish and share was actually produced.
So hopefully, this exchange has ultimately been very fruitful. An
incomplete bit of improvisation has been further unpacked for closer
inspection. The little pearls of wisdom that has come from that
inspection are now free for each person to pick up as they find
interesting and worthwhile.
Peace, Edouard
============================================
Edouard Lagache, PhD
Webmaster - Lecturer
Information Technologies
U.C. San Diego, Division of Extended Studies
Voice: (619) 622-5758, FAX: (619) 622-5742
email: elagache who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu
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: That perspective implied emphasis on comprehensive understanding :
: involving the whole person . . .on activity in and with the :
: world; and on the view that agent, activity, and the world :
: mutually constitute each other. :
: :
: Jean Lave & Etienne Wenger, _Situated Learning_, 1991, p 33. :
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