In my further reading, I am captivated by the further outlines of the positions of knowledge.
From each postion, a woman formulates her vision of reality, her truths of what knowledge is and where it comes from, and her own role in forming her own reality. The positions represent a perspective of Truth and a perspective on what authority provides that definiton. Those are the concepts discussed for each position of knowing.
The different postions of knowledge continue to evolve into Procedural knowledge and Constructed knowledge. I need to think about these perspectives a bit before I discuss them (ah, reflection...) but I find the concepts to be a truthful playing of the experiences of my life, and I feel as if I ebb and flow back and forth through these roles and positions continually, though the progress is inexorably onward.. forward.
I think you've touched on something that is key - ebb and flow. As I read yours, and others, reflections on this book I cannot help but think that two weeks ago in X situation I was in this place, abut today I'm here with Y situation. Simply being aware, and therefore having the language to identify these positions with, is crucial to better understand who we are and how we interact with our world. And maybe even to do it better :)
ReplyDeleteAs with Aimee, the phrase ebb and flow caught my attention. It seems that a common thread in developmental theories is a rhythmic motion, but always, as you say, moving forward. Like the "resistance, rest, resistance, rest" pattern for building muscles or brain cells. For me sometimes the trick is allowing myself the freedom to move from one to the other.
ReplyDeleteThus is the metaphor of the Dance so often used, as much of our development and progress is this "ebb and flow" or "to and fro" of life. "Resistance, rest" seems to be how all aspects of our being develop, and sometimes the resistance washes us backwards quite a ways!
ReplyDeleteThis "ebb and flow" parallels what I am reading in MENTOR, as Daloz discusses that this learning journey, for us and our students, is NOT linear, but a constant building up and breaking down, constant motion through transitions.
ReplyDeleteHI Gail! I am just fascinated with the different perspectives on how knowledge is derived and how one formulates what is true and what is false. I actually wrote an entire paper on it last semester! One of my favorite philosophers is Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche seemed to be a person that tested the reliability of the knowledge that people obtained because of the way people consume that knowledge within their daily lives. Nietzsche believed that the way people perceived something was where part of the lies and falsehoods start to emerge, exposing the limitations of thinking. In his work, Genealogy of Morals, the third essay contains one of Nietzsche’s clearest expressions of perspectivism, the idea that there is no absolute. Moreover, one could say that what people value in life develops from our knowledge or what we know to be true. Nietzsche believed that peoples’ values have distorted the way people think and has made people into weak individuals. Nietzsche then further goes on to think that the reliability of knowledge is important because it is the invention to survive the environment in which one lives. How will one survive in the world if everything that was told were a lie? His theory of knowledge is the distinction between experience and our interpretation of that experience and that knowledge is always set within a specific context. “We, however, we others, who thirst for reason, want to look our experiences straight in the eye as if they represented a scientific experiment, hour after hour, day after day.” It is said that Nietzsche believed that the principle of life is a more pressing and higher concern than that of knowledge, and that the quest of knowledge should serve the interests of life. What constitutes the interests of life is what the world is made up of, therefore it can be said that the world is operated on knowledge that is only of interest. GREAT STUFF, RIGHT?!!!!!
ReplyDelete