Dear Terry,
I thought this article by Stanley Fish in yesterdayıs NYT nicely paralleled
the discussion on epistemological validity. Go Fish:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/the-two-cultures-of-educatio
nal-reform/?_r=0
³But the improvement that would count would involve not the refinement of
quantitative techniques (which will surely happen), but the establishing of
a relationship between quantitative techniques, however improved, and
qualitative insights. Years ago when the philosopher John Searle returned
from a conference on Transformational Grammar, I asked him what had gone on.
³They canıt get from the physics to the semantics,² he replied. Getting from
the physics to the semantics from counting things to knowing anything
deeply important about them is what the new digital techniques (like the
old computational linguistics) have not yet been able to do, .²
Semantically, the concept of affordance carries with it the potential for an
open-endedness of meaning. Affordance is a situated, repertoire-based,
constructed meaning that can change with time, circumstance and peopleıs
minds.
Take for example the artifact, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The critical
understanding of the work was fairly stable until Leslie Fiedler wrote his
essay entitled, ³Come Back to the Raft Huck Honey.² It widened the bookıs
meaning in the literary world. Hereıs another: The product I bought ten
years ago I might not buy today because I donıt now buy things made out of
materials that are unsustainable. The product has remained the same but I
havenıt. Iıve changed the relationship, the meaning I construct, the
affordance of the product, by changing my mind.
Semantically, indeterminate can mathematically mean infinite, but that was
not my meaning. Perhaps you have determinate tomatoes that predictably grow
three feet high. Mine are indeterminate and continue to grow, much like
meaning loose in the social world.
Another August observation (the last in a series): Who controls the root
meaning of a metaphor has a controlling hand on what is epistemologically
valid and correct. Go semantically colonize the Middle East: My freedom is
your freedom.
Jerry
On 8/27/13 9:49 AM, "Terence Love" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi Jerry,
>
> Thanks for your response. In what follows, I'd like to say in advance before
> Ken gets concerned, I'm simply sketching out an explanation of some concepts.
> I'm primarily using reasoning and as an aside, I'm pointing to other people's
> work that should be well enough known in design education. The analyses are
> not new, they are around in other realms, although they seems to be relatively
> absent in design research and design theory making.
--
Jerry Diethelm
Architect - Landscape Architect
Planning & Urban Design Consultant
Prof. Emeritus of Landscape Architecture
and Community Service University of Oregon
2652 Agate St., Eugene, OR 97403
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
web: http://pages.uoregon.edu/diethelm/
541-686-0585 home/work 541-346-1441 UO
541-206-2947 work/cell
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