Dear David,
Good that you have re-surfaced.
You talk about "the stillness before incomprehension continues˛ which
sounds like a phenomenological account but really it is a
narrative/logical account.
That is, there are cognitive/affective states that typify łunderstanding˛
that amount to neurological bindings/investments (cathexis) that are
experienced as significant moments that then open up other neurological
pathways in a way that is exciting/active rather than dull/passive (oh no
- here we go again, my understandings are about to be subverted).
Cheers
keith
On 20/02/2015 9:04 am, "David Sless" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>Just come up for air after a week in the bureaucratic equivalent of Heart
>of Darkness, or was it The Castle? Anyway, a couple of thoughts on
>abduction and closure:
>
>1. Another useful way of thinking about the origins of abduction might be
>as an intellectualised and consciously articulated version of what
>behaviourists call operant conditioning. If this were so, then relatively
>simple organisms might be regarded as practicing abduction.
>
>2. Back in an earlier work (1986) in which I focused on the nature of
>meaning, I wrote the following:
>
>>[A]llow me to caution you about the nature of understanding.
>>Understanding is achieved when, for a moment, there are no more
>>questions to ask. Understanding is the dead spot in our struggle for
>>meaning; it is the momentary pause, the stillness before incomprehension
>>continues; it is the brief relief from doubt that is the norm. Thus
>>understanding is a temporary state of closure. When we understand
>>something we are effectively saying there is no more to ask, no more to
>>question, all is revealed. But of course 'all' is never revealed and
>>the sensation of certainty always passes. (Sless 1986 p i)*
>
>I donąt have the time to spend elaborating or discussing these ideas at
>the moment, but I thought the might be useful to these unfolding (or
>entangled) threads
>
>* Sless D (1986)
>In Search of Semiotics,
>Barnes & Noble Books
>
>Best wishes to all from a hot and steamy Melbourne, where bureaucracy
>never sleeps.
>
>David
>--
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