a warm hello from a very cold Japan,

Jack, Alan, friends, a blind alley,,, huuuum I not so sure does not a  
blind alley have its purposes? Like to take us somewhere on a journey  
that stops and as we retrace our steps we are blessed with mindful  
insights, nothing is wasted or lost for all is learning ,are not all  
journeys blind if we choose not to see or open our eyes or chose to  
see what we see as real and permanent or even a truth?. Alan, I am  
busy turning one of your pictures into a stained glass window for the  
healing space in the university as I am doing this and apply the form  
of construction of lead window which has to follow physical rules of  
engineering and crafting. Glass can only be cut in certain shapes and  
directions as it is a liquid for example. I am struck how the lead  
acts as a new boundary to the form of your original picture. I am most  
vividly stuck by the flow of the painting which was not so apparent at  
first but trying to fit your flow in to the constructs of the lead is  
indeed changing the form and challenging. However the changed form has  
opened the picture up to others as they view the different panes of  
the lead forms, focus on any one loses the context of the whole. It  
has allowed me to start talking about dynamic boundaries and flow of  
form and shape with a degree of transition certainty…smile.  I will  
send you a picture when it is finished. Spring is here again heralded  
by the well know voice of the cuckoo and the return of the swifts and  
swallows a little early I feel…Love to all Je Kan

Quoting Jack Whitehead <[log in to unmask]>:

>
> On 5 Mar 2008, at 09:47, Alan wrote in response to Brian's point  about
> objectivity:
>
> Dear Brian and All,
>
>> "Isn't the search for objectivity  a blind alley in human enquiry?"
>
>
> When asked about the validity of first-person accounts from
> practitioner-researchers, in terms of their 'objectivity' I've  usually
> responded with the following insight from Popper about the  importance
> of
> 'inter-subjective criticism'
>
> "The words ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ are philosophical terms    
> heavily burdened with a heritage of contradictory usages and of    
> inclusive and interminable discussions.
>
> My use of the terms ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ is not unlike Kant/  
>  s. He uses the work ‘objective’ to indicate that scientific   
> knowledge  should be justifiable, independently of anybody’s whim:   
> ‘If something  is valid’, he writes, ‘for anybody in possession of   
> his reason, then  its grounds are objective and sufficient’.
> Now I hold that scientific theories are never fully justifiable or    
> verifiable, but that they are nevertheless testable. I shall    
> therefore say that objectivity of scientific statements lies in the   
>  fact that they can be inter-subjectively tested. The word    
> ‘subjective’ is applied by Kant to our feelings of conviction (of    
> varying degrees)…… I have since generalized this formulation; for    
> inter-subjective testing is merely a very important aspect of the    
> more general idea of inter-subjective criticism, or in other words,   
>  of the idea of mutual rational control by critical  discussion."   
> (Popper, 1975, p.44)
>
> Popper, K. (1975) The Logic of Scientific Discovery,  London;
> Hutchinson & Co.
>
> I know that a lot of understanding and misunderstanding in
> communications, is related to the meanings of the words we use.  When
> asked about the 'objectivity' of practitioner-researcher accounts I
> usually point to the grounding of 'objectivity' in 'intersubjective
> criticism' and show how the validity of first-person accounts has  been
> strengthened with the help of the four social criteria I  mentioned in
> an earlier note, of comprehensibility, truth, rightness  and
> authenticity, from Habermas' ideas on communication and the  evolution
> of society.
>
> I'm thinking that Brian and Alan are in agreement that the search for
> objectivity is a 'blind alley in human enquiry'. When I'm asked
> questions about the objectivity of my accounts I usually find that  I'm
> being asked about 'tests' of validity and I answer in the way
> described above that enables a relationship to be established between
> subjective and objective, with intersubjective criticism.
>
> Love Jack.



Rev Je Kan Adler-Collins.
Associate Professor of Nursing,
Health Promotion Centre.
Fukuoka Prefectural University Faculty of Nursing
Tagawa City,
Fukuoka Prefecture,
Japan.
8258585