Fred Nickols wrote:
> ...snip...
> 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.
Fred makes a good point but where did those criteria come from? Absent
Friday or some community, RC must rely upon his models of what constitutes
good shelter in another very different context. One might discover
(stumble upon?) useful criteria individually but are they not much more
likely to INITIALLY come from comparisons and learning made in community?
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