Maatukathe
IV, Session 2
Ninasam, Heggodu
April 28,
2016
Minutes:
Elizabeth Thomas
How do we
characterise a life of learning? We can say that shaping a Life of learning is
not for scholarly pursuits alone, it is equally part of all sorts of pursuits
as part of leading a good life. In such an engagement having knowledge can be
reframed as possessing dispositions/skills rather than as having information.
Knowledge can be seen as art (skill/discipline, which is an action disposition.
An action disposition is a propensity to act in a particular way. Such
dispositions are available in common and are improvable by social cooperation.
Knowledge thus is an action disposition - improvable and available in common.
We can make a
subtle distinction between habit and disposition. While both dispositions and
habits are acquired, it is possible to drill in habits but not dispositions. Zen
Buddhism talks about idea of control of emotions, of the body, but it is not
about controlling the will, but mastering of the senses in closely observing
things, without active involvement. One can say habits in which one is able to
exercise such control is part of an ethos.
Most human
dispositions are acquired, and thus require both a milieu of learning and
active cultivation. Even natural human dispositions such as language learning
needs a milieu. An individual is born in and through socio-cultural processes,
which are i) cultural- cultivated habits and ethos and ii) mediated through
signs and schemes.
What is a
sign or scheme? A sign is that which fulfils a communicating role. Action by
its nature is a sign. Identifying a structure in an action is a scheme. For instance, mentally
processing the different stages of cooking a dish, or observing someone
drinking water is to schematize. Here scheme could be a succession of acts or a
spatial pattern. Another example is two people
raising their hands, they have performed the same action, actualised the same
scheme. Schemes are there in maps, visual things, concepts and perceptions,
since even perceptions involves making distinctions. We can therefore say, socialization
or education involves:
1) a scheme
of distinctions
2) certain
instruments/ abilities to use them
3) and standards
of judgment about the right use
Our everyday
life involves concepts and distinctions and so does any form of specialized
knowledge whether that of an academic, a carpenter, doctor, musician and so on.
Each distinction involves a learning situation. Every learner is in an act of
imitation and knows how to distinguish relevant and irrelevant actions in the
course of scheme building. The learning process involves a performance, that
is, repetition of another's action. The repetition involved in performance or
replicating an action requires a scheme of actualization.
Operating with concepts
'Operating
with concepts' is a term of art / technical term for
making distinctions through perceptual schemes or words or concepts or more
generally signs. Perceptual scheme have
precedence over conceptual scheme, because the latter requires language. In
contrast to this formulation, the dominant epistemological tradition says that in
the process of understanding, first sensory perception happens and then
interpretation takes place. Instead we can say perceptual schemes are available
and one is already making distinctions in the process of seeing something. Scheme acquisition is thus a way of seeing
something.
A situation,
action, person can be introduced through - description as well as acquaintance.
Words are deeds first, descriptions only secondarily. Example, Calling out
'fire!' presents a situation than merely a word.
We learn concepts
through various methods. Through a) socialization; b) deliberate learning;
c) deliberate
construction- that is introduction of a
term and delimiting its use; d) deliberate reconstruction, re-configuring of
knowledge already received
Deconstruction,
that is breaking down an idea to everyday language ,and reconstruction,
re-building it into a more economical concept, are the accustomed concepts of
the elite/ educated discourse (bildungssprace).
In this process however, a number of scientific terminologies of a discipline
oozes into everyday life. Eg. Acidity or Gravity
The construction
of concepts and models can be grasped through the following structure. Let us
say we are simultaneously part of three possible worlds:
1) The lived world : This world depends on one's knowledge and
horizon of thinking. So say a Pandit Nehru or Garcia Marquez dying will make an
impact on a person only if these figures are part of their lived world. Similarly
if we say 'It didn’t rain in Saurashtra/ or Bangalore this summer' that has
some implications for your lived world. The lived world is the accustomed
environment and ways of dealing with it. Typically misunderstandings and
miscommunications occur between people because
their lived worlds are different
from each other's.
2) The world we live: This is the milieu or
environment in which we are embedded, where lots of things might happen on
which we have no direct control or interest, nevertheless these contain institutions
in which we are embedded and the past of oneself and one's environment.
3) The world we aspire to live in : Most of
our activities and everyday projects are directed towards this aspired world.
Social and Natural
sciences attempt to grasp the world we live in through constructing concepts
from the lived world.
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To further
understand the importance of the distinctions of The lived world and The world
we live in a text from the New York Times editorial, 'Why the Post office
makes America Great' was discussed.
The
discussion was about the importance of properly functioning public institutions
such as post offices, libraries, museums and such other to our everyday lives.
We attempted to probe using examples and
anecdotes what makes certain institutions successful and why certain others
don’t function as well. Examples were drawn from different domains like urban
planning and residential architecture, environment sustenance projects, flourishing
of libraries and reading culture in various spaces. It was noticed that one of
the marks of thriving institutions as
well as projects is attention to logistics and human cooperation. The text
shows that one distinct characteristic of the American post office is the trust
they have been able to build among their customers over the years, perhaps a
clear contrast to Turkey (an example the text cites) and India. It was noted
that even recent innovations in the postal sector in India is based on by-passing
the human quotient by depending on the success of technological applications.
This is not to say Indians or the Turks are not trustworthy, but that coordination
and cooperation at various systemic levels has not been paid attention to in
these places.
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