>Until now I observed the discussion on this thread from a distance. I kept
>this distance for a while because I was trying to understand the issue.
>But unfortunately I cannot get my finger behind it. Let me explain my
>troubles:
> - Consciousness is something which is situated in yourself.
> - Competence is a characteristic which is NOT in yourself, but the world
>outside yourself is needed to know whether competence is in play. In other
>words, competence is a characteristic that is relative to other's
>competences. At least two parties are involved.
It would certainly seem reasonable to gauge the competence displayed by
one individual in relation to the competence displayed by another
person--a sort of "compare and contrast" approach.
However, I believe that is only one way of assessing competence. In your
Friday vs Robinson Crusoe example, you assert that RC, living alone on the
island, has no way of knowing if he is competent or not. In your words...
>So maybe Robinson Crusoe was building an awfull shelter for himself, or it
>was - given the means available - a very sofisticated one. He could not
>decide whether he was competent or not.
Here, I disagree. Robinson Crusoe could just as easily gauge his
competence in terms of the extent to which the shelter he built matches
his requirements as he could by comparing his shelter or efforts with
those of Friday. In other circles, this is known as
"criterion-referenced" performance.
--Regards,
Fred Nickols Distance Consulting http://home.att.net/~nickols/distance.htm nickols@worldnet.att.net (609) 490-0095
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>