I will take Jeremy's point about the distinction between relational
and ontological epistemology and also the use of the term properties.
Relational ontology is certainly useful in understanding networks of
action and raises the question of what happens to the socialization
process when we reduce the number of ontological relations in favor
of relational ones. I have been thinking about this for quite a few
years. To go farther requires a greater knowledge of psychology than
I have but the thought I would like to put forward is the connection
between our relations to humans and our relations to artifacts. I
have an intuitive belief that there is much that we learn about
socialization by relating to people in terms of expected responses,
constraints on our own behavior, potential for enhancement of our
life, danger to our well being etc. The question is what happens when
we begin to relate more to non-ontological entities as do many folks
who do much more on line than folks in my generation. Does this
change the socialization process and if so how? This is a good
question for those in the design field to be thinking about as a
consequence of technological change.
Victor
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Victor Margolin
Professor Emeritus of Design History
Department of Art History
University of Illinois at Chicago
935 W. Harrison St.
Chicago, IL 60607-7039
Tel. 1-312-583-0608
Fax 1-312-413-2460
website: www.uic.edu/~victor
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