Habermas on Mead
Wednesday, July 28th, 2004I’m digging into Volume 2 of the Theory of Communicative Action as Volume 1 has not yet arrived. As I’m reading Habermas’ critique of Mead, several thoughts come to mind. Mead’s theories are an interesting departure from behaviorism. If we assume that stimulus-response is the central tenet of behaviorism, the suggestion that in an interaction, not only do organisms (or people) react to one another, to suggest that the relationship between two speakers is transformed”so that “the participants learn to distinguish between acts of reaching understanding and actions oriented to success.” Each actor in an exchange will try to anticipate and immediately adjust to each other’s utterances.
As evidence of a break with a more behavioristic view, Mead cites “inhibited or delayed reaction,” which is defined as “the ability to solve the problems of present behavior in terms of its future possible consequences.” (11) In this way, our internal monitoring of this exchange is interested in more than an immediate response, we are holding sway over a potential future. Habermas identifies Mead’s other line of thought which is that “the pressure to adapt that participants in complex interactions exert on one another—whether the need to cooperate…puts a premium on the speed of interaction.” (12)
As I was reading one passage,
“Gestures become significant symbols when they implicitly arouse in an individual making them the same responses which they explicitly arouse…in other individuals, the individuals to whom they are addressed.”
This has interesting ramifications for my experience, which includes working with adult English as a Second Language learners. I used to work with someone who would follow every word he said in English with a Spanish equivalent. I think he really didn’t trust the word to symbolize what he wanted to communicate. I have noticed that with my own communication in another language. Sometimes, even if I could try to communicate something in another language, I worry about the message beyond the language– how the choice of words, the grammatical forms chosen have so much meaning to a native language speaker (which Habermas doesn’t begin to address yet in the beginning pages of this work), but I don’t trust the meaning of the words that I will come up with.
I also had another random association while reading this passage, particularly about the very instinctual gestures of animals…Habermas uses the example of a dog fight, where the stance of one creature sends a message to the other to adjust his/her stance…
Today I was reading an article about a study with chimpanzees in Tokyo where they discovered that adult chimps exhibit the same behavior that humans do when another person yawns…they also give a sympathy yawn (and as a tribute to the power of symbols —just reading that word is probably making you yawn!).
I was reading the article in Spanish on CNNEspañol to practice and found the vocabulary fairly easy, once you know that bostezo is yawn (and for the record, reading it in Spanish makes me yawn too!!!)
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Digging into the Theory of Communicative Action
Thursday, July 22nd, 2004While waiting for my copies of Habermas’ Theories of Communicative Action to arrive, I am attempting to get started by reading analyses of his theories in order to familiarize myself with some of the concepts. I am starting with the first chapter of Language and Reason by Maeve Cooke, published in 1994.
Moving through the chapter, what caught my attention was the description of a dialogue between Habermas and Walter Benjamin where Habermas addresses the difficulty of Benjamin’s concept of “secular illumination,” which is closely intertwined with the “redemption of tradition” (17).
The quote goes on to say,
<em><blockquote>”Now it is true that hte liberation of culture is not possible without overcoming the repression anchored in institutions. Yet, for a moment, one is beset by suspicion: wouldn’t it be just as possible to have an emancipation without happiness or fullfilment as it is to have a relatively high standard of living without the abolition of oppression” (18). </blockquote></em>
This is exactly the sort of quandary I have been contemplating with my dissertation pilot exploring attitudes of immigrants to multi-media technology. First, why is technology intertwined with a belief that it will only do good things for people who are exposed to it? Second, how does this new technology, which has already steam-rolled over traditions of western, “developed” nations (and in fact to use “steam-rolled” is rather deterministic isn’t it? We have, for the most part welcomed technological progress, embraced it for all that it does for humanity, and turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the resulting complications our new technologies bring.
And what is most troubling is that very few people question the machine. As a designer and instructional technologist, the hardest thing to get people to really hear is that machines are NOT going to solve problems or save money necessarily. The larger system, the process for how things are done is the whole sum of technology, and without carefully taking into account people, throwing a bunch of hardware and software at a problem is essentially useless.
lugano ed-media
Wednesday, July 21st, 2004Maybe I should title thisdawn breaks over marble head.
What got me motivated to start a blog is a symposium I attended at Ed-Media 2004 in Lugano Switzerland (see picture above). The symposium was conducted by two Sebastians and an Adrian, with several others billed on the program. I had never considered before using a blog for one’s own learning growth.
Of course I haven’t exactly done that effectively so far.
I also met Aldo de Moor in Tilburg, the Netherlands and he was very helpful and friendly and enthusiastic about virtual communities.
But now here’s an interesting question—how does one become part of a community without being presumptuous? I am not as interested in discussing how a blog works on a blog as much as talking about whatever comes to my mind?
So I’m also thinking about how to organize the blog—maybe I should code my posts by topic? Some blogs I find so confusing because they seem to lack order—but maybe calendar-wise isn’t the best way for me to organize. And how to go about finding a community?