the ancient greeks prided themself, a little, on not telling the "truth" -
that is, man speaks with tongue in cheek of own mouth.
how would it be otherwise? This became something of a problem when Western
people met American Indian groups who lived inside a notion of
"word-as-truth-=man-as-true". How could they possibly figure a man who lied and
thought that a godd thing?
am i now speaking the "truth" or is this yet another of my many lies - all
of which I am proud of as my own children?
>>> Brynjulf Tellefsen <
[log in to unmask]>
08/14/01 11:40AM >>>
Dear Rosan, Richard, and All,
A number
of social scientist believe that reality is a social construction,
and not an
objective truth, and that individuals have in them parts of that
social that
is shared with others, referred to as (objective) facts, and
some that is
unique to the individual, referred to as subjective realities.
In other
words, we claim to know the objective truth, and have moral and
physical wars
to mission for our own version of it. Some call it
philosophy, others ethics,
and yet others call it religious wars. Consider
the following statements:
"God is a male white. When he is depicted as
black in Africa they simply
don't know the truth and have to be educated!"
50 years ago I would
probably get Christian ministerial approval for that
remark, while today I
might be dragged to court for rasism. Truth and
knowledge are rather relative
in time and space.
Rosan asks:
"Will graphic design Ph.D programs
really benefit, graphic design and
how?".
I have only one ansver to
that: Those who run the programs would believe in
a Yes. Otherwise I guess
they would have trouble with matching their belief
structure with what they
do, i.e. experience moral dissonance. Others,
especially the rebels who need
to carve out a different faith to make room
for competing solutions would
likely say No. Any conclusion offered would
be an article of faith,
propaganda to win a war, or pure speculation.
Richards is
stricken:
'In fact, I am struck by how often the perspective of
the
"knower" colors what he or she regards as "knowable" or as
"known."
Indeed, it significantly colors what he or she thinks is
"knowledge."'
Richard, can you think of any instance where what the
knower says is not
considered by the knower to be the truth? Otherwise the
knower would be
knowingly lying to him/herself, or others. But the world it
filled with
liars, at least so do those who disagree proclaim the truth to
be.....
Bryn
Brynjulf Tellefsen
Visiting Professor
School of
Management Information Systems
Edith Cowan University
Churchlands, WA
6018, Australia
e-mail:
[log in to unmask]Mobile phone: +61-8-403 907
440 (0 instead of 8 if domestic call)
Associate Professor
Department
of Knowledge Management
Norwegian School of Management - BI
Elias Smiths
vei 15
N-1302 Sandvika, NORWAY
