Klaus,
Social phenomena must eventually be addressed by the thoughts of the
individuals concerned. They don't develop beliefs, needs or desires
otherwise. Difficult social problems where individual views have hardened
into "cultural artifacts" usually require outside mediation - that is to say
fair minded social "designers" of which there is a paucity in the world
today.
Everything is reducible to individual cognition if it is to have meaning and
be understood. Cognition is a mediating process not an object.
Best regards,
Chuck
--
Dr. Charles Burnette
234 South Third Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
215 629 1387
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On 4/22/07 1:07 PM, "Klaus Krippendorff" <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> terry, chuck and list,
>
> i think it is a category mistake to think that the wickedness of social
> problems would disappear if one takes a cognitive point of view. cognition
> plays a role in social phenomena but does not determine them and cannot be
> reduced to it.
>
> take the israeli-palestinian conflict as an example. this is a truly wicked
> problem in that the parties involved have conflicting concepts as to what
> would constitute a solution to the problem, there is no agreeable criterion,
> no finite set of alternatives among which one could select the best one.
> eventually there could be a resolution, but the way the problem is
> conceptualized by the parties involved, there can be no solution.
>
> not everything is reducible to individual cognition.
>
> klaus
>
>
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