Dialogue, language, learning LO25257

From: DP Dash (dpdash@ximb.ac.in)
Date: 08/31/00


Replying to LO25247 --

Dear ALL,

Like Richard Holloway, I too find the exchanges on this topic quite
interesting. Incidentally, I have been thinking hard on this very topic
for a paper I am writing at the moment. I have hit upon the notion of
'narrative break-off'. I will outline the link between this notion and the
topic we are discussing. I will also propose a direction for dealing with
problems implied by the notion.

NARRATIVE BREAK-OFF

The notion is similar to 'justification break-off' discussed by C. West
Churchman and Werner Ulrich. In following a line of argumentation, if you
are required to justify each premise, somewhere along the line, the
justification breaks off. That is to say, all (?) arguments are founded
upon a non-justifiable set of starting premises.

Something similar happens for narratives. A narrative is like a story.
Consider the story of astronomy: Once upon a time, people foolishly
thought that the earth is flat and it is covered all around by a crystal
sphere studded with stars. Then they 'saw' that the crystal sphere moves!
They throught, all the stars should move together as they are studded on a
crystal sphere. Then they 'saw' that the stars do have some relative
motion with respect to each other. ... ... And this is how the solar
system, the galaxies, etc., were discovered. ... [the story moves on] ...
and as Paul Davies describes in his books, everytime we make an
observation we split the universe into two possible worlds. That leads us
to believe that there are either infinitely many possible universes
(multiversa) of which only one is real, OR there are infinitely many real
universes of which we are constrained to experience ONLY ONE, i.e., the
one that allows for the possibility of conscious observers evolving within
itself. ... [I think, by this time, the narrative is already breaking off;
in the sense that it is losing the nice coherence it began with.]

I feel, this is the case with most narratives, including the narrative of
learning, the narrative of language, and the narrative of dialogue.

DEALING WITH NARRATIVE BREAK-OFFS

There can be many ways of dealing with the progressive rise of incoherence
within naratives. One way, the one I would like to discuss, is to change
the SCRIPT of the narrative. [At this stage, I do not know what kind of
SCRIPT will achieve what kind of result.]

For example, what happens if instead of starting with, 'Once upon a time,
people foolishly thought that the earth is flat...', we say 'Once upon a
time people had many views about the earth depending upon their genuine
experiences and their attachment to the earth...'

Or, we do not present the ascent of astronomy as a series of 'discoveries'
but a series of 'rules' about how we express and relate our experiences.

Or, we do not claim that science (any science) gives us knowledge, but it
helps in localising our ideas within a broad network of meanings, always
aiming to include more and more participant in the network.

I think, one approach to organisational learning is to invent a new script
for organisation interactions (and conversations) that keeps the existing
narratives going, or even creating new ones.

I sincerely need your ideas on this topic. It will help me improve the
paper I am working on.

DP

PS: Lewis Carol's poem can be seen as an emphatic assertion that a
narrative has indeed broken off. It can also be seen as a literary trick
to salvage a broken narrative (e.g., by creating the opportunity for
someone to ask: What do you really mean?).

On 30 Aug 00, at 2:27, Richard C. Holloway wrote:

>JABBERWOCKY
>Lewis Carroll

>(from Through the Looking-Glass
>and What Alice Found There, 1872)

>`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
> Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
>All mimsy were the borogoves,
> And the mome raths outgrabe.

-- 

Dr. D. P. Dash Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar 751013 India <dpdash@ximb.ac.in>

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