Re: InterSubjective Reality LO2218

Marco Frank (dernier@cs.tu-berlin.de)
Tue, 25 Jul 1995 10:16:34 +0200

Replying to LO2191 --

After lurking for a while I think it's time to introduce myself. I am a
student of computer science and currently working on a paper about change
concepts from hierarchy orientation to team orientation in organizations.

>Responding to John Wilson in LO2135, and an intersubjective reality
> ...
>John, I was really interested in your philosophical perspective, and what
>the process was whereby You came to the conclusion of a single
>Intersubjective Reality, since that is the perspecitive which I also have.

IMHO there's not a single intersubjective reality but multiple
intersubjective realities. I think I share different realities with
different persons. Maybe there is such a thing as reality but the
cognitive science teachs us that we can't observe this reality, so the
only thing we can talk about is reality as we perceive it.

IMHO the only conclusion one can draw from the mechanics of perception is
that there is no such thing as objectivity. From the works of Maturana/
Varela and others we know that an observation says something about the
observer but nothing about the observed. The concept of intersubjective
reality deals most elegantly with the fact, that nevertheless we can share
some aspects of reality. Which aspects of reality we share depends on the
selections we make from reality. The question how we select leads to
questions like shared meaning, cognitive maps etc.

----------------------------
Marco Frank
student computer science
Technical University Berlin
dernier@cs.tu-berlin.de