[MD] Food for Thought

[gav]

platt: 
> The fact that Einstein's theory is something that is
> taught to students
> puts it in the social pattern category. Lots of
> people don't understand
> our government and many of our laws, but they are
> still social patterns.
> Anyway, I don't see how social patterns like the
> governments, churches,
> and universities are "unconscious forces." But, I
> could be wrong.

gav: a lot is taught at school and at uni but how much
  is truly incorporated by the student....? i would
say a fraction.  the most general legacy is the
unconscious stuff - the structure and method:
hierarchy, discipline, conformity etc. free thinking
and original development are not really encouraged.

so i would say that the social stuff we get from
education is less to do with the abstract ideas and
artistic subtleties we may be exposed, clumsily, to,
and more to do with the *atmosphere* of the
institutions...a gradual 'osmotic' transfer of the
underlying logic of the 'system'.

however, i would say that an erroneous simplification
of relativity theory and its implications has infected
our educational foundations, even if not always
explicitly obvious. what i am getting at is the
postmodern paradigm that sees a nihilistic relativity
as the *true* nature of things (and is this a
contradiction?).

so perhaps this metaphysical cynicism could be said to
be a social pattern of sorts (academically speaking at
least) because it seems to be assumed  (ie
unconsciously adopted) by so many, and evidenced in
how they think and see the world.

but to return to your reply...i think most of us are
aware of the logic behind the need for government and
law, irrespective of the quality of that logic. and
because of this general comprehension these patterns
can then move into the realm of the social. it seems
general comprehension, if not concensus, is required
for an intellectual pattern to become socially
transmittable.

what do you think?














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