Replying to LO26809 --
Dear Organlearners,
Mark Spain <mark.spain@bigpond.com> writes:
>THE problem can never be universal (ie apply to
>everyone) because problems are a matter of
>personal perception. THE problem for me is
>"How should I live a life of fulfillment?"
Greetings dear Mark,
Thank you for your provoking thinking! (How do you like these two gerunds
in sequence ;-)
I have replied to Jan Lelie's "What is THE problem? LO26801" in such a
manner that I question you two both, not from my point of view, but from
Goethe's point of view. By doing this the last thing on my mind was to use
Goethe as an expert to silence you or any other fellow learner. I am
actually trying to bring in "thoughts from the past" to our dear
LO-dialogue.
I appreciate it very much that you and Jan try to beyond the manufacturing
of recipes for problem solving.
I will now bring in Polanyi to our discussion because he was pretty sure
that problem-solving is a process of discovery which begins at the tacit
level of knowledge. He writes (pp24- 25, "The Tacit Dimension"):
. "This is in fact our result. We must conclude that
. in the paradigmatic case of scientific knowledge,
. in which all the faculties that are necessary for
. finding and holding scientific knowledge are fully
. discovered, is the knowledge of an approaching
. discovery.
. To hold such a knowledge is an act deeply commited
. to the conviction that there is something there to be
. discovered. It is personal, in the sense of involving the
. personality of him who holds it........ The discoverer
. is filled with a compelling sense of responsibility for
. the pursuit of a hidden truth, which demands his
. services for revealing it.
On p91 he gives an perspective on this personal responsibility in terms of
something which all discoverers share:
. It is this image of humanity immersed in potential
. thought that I find revealing for the problems of our
. day. It rids us of the absurdity of absolute self-
. determination, yet offers each of us the change of
. creative originalty, within the fragmentary area
. which circumscribes our calling. It provides us with
. the metaphysical grounds and the organizing priciple
. of a Society of Explorers.
In other words, authentic problem-solving was for Polanyi not only a
personal ("dassein") process, but also a social ("mitsien") process
because each person of that society of "problem solvers" carries an idea
which he dare to articulate as "image of humanity immersed in potential
thought". Should I have asked Polanyi "What is THE problem", perhaps he
would have answered that it is any person who cannot live fully because of
not having this "image of humanity immersed in potential thought". It is
such persons who will say to any explorer "no problem", "akuna matata" or
"nos problemos" depending where they live less than fully.
Let us explore Polanyi's insight deeper and see how much of it is
reflected by language. The Greeks were well know for creating problems in
the mind and then solving it. On the other hand, the Romans thought of it
as a waste of human resources when compared to their own engineering
projects. The Greeks called a problem a problem because in it they threw
their thoughts forward. In fact, "pro-"=before and "ballo"=throw so that
"problema"=projection of thoughts.
But it seems that the Romans got the upperhand. They thought that the
"problema" of the Greeks was not only a waste or resources, but that the
"problema" changed little, if anything. Guess what was their translation
for "problema" in Latin? With before="pro-"="ob-" and throw="ballo"="jacio
the Romans translated "problema" with "objectus" from which the English
have formed object
It seems to me that Polanyi would have said that should a person perceive
anything material or mental, that person will perceive it either as a
problem with the potential for becoming or as a object which has only
being. "To become or not to become" the postmodern Hamlet might say.
>In terms of your other problem
>> . Solve the problem, given three apples and
>> . the price of pears is 50 cents each.
>
>The problem could be ... "Find three apples and find the price of pears".
How about a little more "immersion in potential thought"?
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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