This quote from Heinz von Foerster seems relevant:
“Objectivity is the delusion that observations could be made without
an observer”
Ranulph
On 23 Jan 2008, at 06:23, Klaus Krippendorff wrote:
> david,
>
> i would not say and never said that "all non-fiction is fiction."
> indeed,
> this would not say much -- but this is your exception.
>
> i tried to answer your question: if (as i said) THE WORLD WE KNOW IS
> FICTION, what is non-fiction? and in my answer i granted you to
> make the
> distinction between non-fiction and fiction as you wish, but this
> does not
> give you access to anything outside your own nervous system within
> which you
> construct the world you know. epistemologically, the world you
> know does
> not represent the world to which you have no direct access. if non-
> fiction
> means describing the world as is -- unframed by the language used to
> describe it and without acknowledging its conceptualization by your
> nervous
> system, then i call this claim illusionary, indeed.
>
> klaus
>
> pleas don't gloss over the fine points i made
> k
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and
> related
> research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> David
> Sless
> Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2008 12:40 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Is all writing fiction?
>
> On 23/01/2008, at 3:42 PM, Klaus Krippendorff wrote:
>> are you buying into russell's theory of logical types, david?
>
> Not at all, just trying to make sense of what you are saying, but
> without
> much success.
>
> If, as you say, all non-fiction is fiction, then I don't think you
> have said
> anything useful.
>
> I have a fairly good idea in ordinary usage of when to describe
> something as
> fiction and something else as non-fiction. When I go to my local
> library or
> book shop and see signs that point me to fiction and non-fiction, I
> know
> which section to go to for books on gardening and where I will find
> books by
> Agatha Christie. It is of no value to me to be told in that context
> that all
> non-fiction is fiction. If I follow your advice I will look in the
> wrong
> place for gardening books.
>
> If the fiction/non-fiction distinction works usefully why would I
> abandon
> it? I can accept that gardening books are 'socially constructed',
> and that
> there are some works that sit uneasily at the boundary of fiction and
> non-fiction, like Moby Dick, but I still find the distinction useful.
>
> When you say: THE WORLD WE KNOW IS FICTION, I don't know what you
> are saying
> that would fit into any of the normal contexts in which I would use
> the
> terms fiction and non-fiction.
>
> David
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