Dear At,
Big Snip..
> Is something real as a result of culture?
>
> I am very interested in your answers. Should you answer YES, is there a
> "but" in it? What is this "but"? Should you answer NO, it means that
> something is real as a result of "something else". Please try to tell us
> what is this "something else", even when it is difficult to articulate it.
> It may be vital to our understanding of "When is something real".
>
> At this stage most of you fellow learners ought to have followed my
> thoughts. Perhaps I should stop here so that you feel free to participate
> in the dialogue on this topic of "When is something real". Perhaps the
> next part of my contribution will destroy all your creative energy. To
> prevent that, I will now write it, but only mail it a couple of weeks from
> now.
This makes me think and piques the curiousity nodes.... Culture seems to
me to be an agreed paradigm between a group of people. So it is real and
unreal (both/and... my favourites) at the same time. It is certainly real
in the sense that people adher to it unconsciously (or not, as the case
may be). Those from outside the culture can 'see' it. But it isn't
touchable (tastbaar). In a sense it is a shared map of reality. Now,
that gets into the bigger 'can of worms' about what is reality.
In my mind, I make a map of what is out there. It is at best an
approximation. My map is different to yours and to others, but I ASSUME
we all have the same map. And so do you. And this is what we call
'reality'. But it is all an illusion that we 'dream up' in order to
function. Culture is like that too: we collectively draw a map
subconsciously, we all follow the map and we all assume that everyone has
the same map, but each person's map is SLIGHTLY (or greatly) different.
Assumptions are real, but not tangible and very difficult to uncover.
Is the 'map' real? Can an approximation be real? I would hold that
frequently our maps of reality are delusions, and that learning is
uncovering the delusion and getting better at forming maps of reality. A
never-ending task, which we shall never complete, and never perfect...but
the fun is in the trying!
All the best,
Tricia Lustig
LASA Development UK Ltd.
--Tricia Lustig <Tricia@lasa.demon.co.uk>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>