>I am still perplexed by the notion of accumulated knowledge. Our last
>discussion centered on language as structural limits to our thinking.
>I would like to ask something deeper. I have been studying Deming's
>system of Profound Knowledge and one of the components is the "Theory of
>knowledge" ....or basically Without a theory or model to compare reality
>to, there is no learning. However, with this notion, are not we tied to
>our own base of the pyramid? That is .... as we accumulate knowledge and
>build our theories, how do we rewrite them when our ego is so invested in
>proving them right?
With respect to Deming's System of Profound Knowledge if you look at it
this way it may be useful. We can never really prove a theory, although
many of us have been taught that we can. The possibility of learning
something new in the future always exists.
One of the insights that Deming gives us, is, that when we act on the
basis of theory, and we learn something new, we have the opportunity to
observe that our theory is no longer valid.
We then build knowledge by revision of the theory or by creating a new
theory.
Best regards,
Walt
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