Ming wrote:
>
>b) the earth is round, not just b/c the pictures show it to be round,
>but b/c by mathematical and physical definition it is "round". but
>again, that definition is caught up within a system of signification.
>it can be re-presented as not round in a useful way (for example, in a
>world map) and the nature of our senses and our articulation of physical
>space affects the construction too.
But are the potential ways of resignification unencumbered? Are we free to
describe it in any way we like? 'The earth is a pink bubble man where peace
and harmony reign' type of thing.
for example, there's that book
>- what was it called, _flatland_, or something? i don't remember the
>author. and then, the question of whether or not it is round becomes
>completely irrelevant to a mind with different sensory apparatus -
Well of course, but _we_ aren't beings with differing sensory apparatus. So
what hangs on this? If I had wings I could fly. If I could travel through
time I would probably have a differing concept of time/space, but then again
I can't so I don't.
in other words, the important
>thing is not that something exists, but what meaning one makes of it.
Well yes, of course the meanings one gives to things are important,
crucially so in the social world, but this issue can't logically be
disconnected from what things are. Why do certain meanings dominate? Why
can't we simply mean to eradicate global poverty? How and why do meanings
come to be? When the nasty Spaniards took to the seas and bumbed into alien
people in far away shores, those alien people took them as Gods, and this
was the meaning they gave to their contacts. Unfortunately, Cortez and his
mob had a different meaning in mind and no amount of creative
resignification by those aliens could make Cortez a benign god, so meanings
do not exhaust the social world. Equally, of course, the meaning one makes
of _it_ implies an _it_ that is given meaning too and if this is so then
perhaps it is a good idea to take the meanings and the it together to
examine how and why certain meanings dominate and come to be universally
accepted. An understaning of the fact Eskimos have more ways of describing
snow that bushmen in Australia can't be separated from the difference in
geographical location.
Thanks,
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Colin Wight
Department of International Politics
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth
SY23 3DA
--------------------------------------------------------
>
>b) the earth is round, not just b/c the pictures show it to be round,
>but b/c by mathematical and physical definition it is "round". but
>again, that definition is caught up within a system of signification.
>it can be re-presented as not round in a useful way (for example, in a
>world map) and the nature of our senses and our articulation of physical
>space affects the construction too.
But are the potential ways of resignification unencumbered? Are we free to
describe it in any way we like? 'The earth is a pink bubble man where peace
and harmony reign' type of thing.
for example, there's that book
>- what was it called, _flatland_, or something? i don't remember the
>author. and then, the question of whether or not it is round becomes
>completely irrelevant to a mind with different sensory apparatus -
Well of course, but _we_ aren't beings with differing sensory apparatus. So
what hangs on this? If I had wings I could fly. If I could travel through
time I would probably have a differing concept of time/space, but then again
I can't so I don't.
in other words, the important
>thing is not that something exists, but what meaning one makes of it.
Well yes, of course the meanings one gives to things are important,
crucially so in the social world, but this issue can't logically be
disconnected from what things are. Why do certain meanings dominate? Why
can't we simply mean to eradicate global poverty? How and why do meanings
come to be? When the nasty Spaniards took to the seas and bumbed into alien
people in far away shores, those alien people took them as Gods, and this
was the meaning they gave to their contacts. Unfortunately, Cortez and his
mob had a different meaning in mind and no amount of creative
resignification by those aliens could make Cortez a benign god, so meanings
do not exhaust the social world. Equally, of course, the meaning one makes
of _it_ implies an _it_ that is given meaning too and if this is so then
perhaps it is a good idea to take the meanings and the it together to
examine how and why certain meanings dominate and come to be universally
accepted. An understaning of the fact Eskimos have more ways of describing
snow that bushmen in Australia can't be separated from the difference in
geographical location.
Thanks,
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Colin Wight
Department of International Politics
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth
SY23 3DA
--------------------------------------------------------