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From: relihanl@ul.ie (Liam Relihan)
Subject: Re: The Naive Witness and the Human Sciences
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Date: Tue, 23 May 1995 13:59:02 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai:30052 sci.cognitive:7691


In article <3pnr4b$scp@Mars.mcs.com>, jorn@MCS.COM (Jorn Barger) writes:
>I've been railing lately against ivory-tower hypertext theorists, who
>won't even put their theories to the test on the WWWeb... but this is
>just another aspect of a long-term major disagreement I have with
>academia in general, and the academic approach to the 'human sciences'
>in particular...
>
>And to put this in yet-another-perspective, I'd like to propose the
>concept of the "naive witness", as a label for a certain class of
>paradoxes about expertise...
>
>Which boils down to this:
>
>      It's a lot easier to see others' mistakes than your own.
>
>And to overcome this, one has to cultivate a sensitivity to one's own
>'naive witness'-- that place within us that's able to judge with
>detachment, even when it's our own egos on the line...

Mmmmm...this is good science really, isn't it ? I think that any
academic that is doing his/her job properly will be objective.

>But academia is set up to completely suppress this truth!!!

This sounds like something from the Scientologists.

>In academia, the egos of the PhDs seem to be paramount, and the naive
>witness is exactly *nowhere*-- for how can a naive non-PhD presume
>to judge an academic with a advanced degree?!?
>
>So we get absurdities like Roger Schank's "Engines for Education"
>hyperbook, that any experienced WWWeb-surfer should immediately
>recognize as ***bizarre***, as ***completely unconnected to human
>experience and intuition***, but still it gets praised as innovative
>(mainly, one hopes, by Schank's extended 'Family')...
>
>(See <URL: http://www.mcs.net/~jorn/html/net/askjorn.html > for a
>brief critique with pointers.)

I haven't seen any of Roger's work, but if it is rubbish, it will be
rubbished by naive witnesses and academics alike. Of course there are
raving sycophants in academia, but aren't there everywhere ? 


>I've been arguing that *schoolteachers* are likely to create excellent
>hypertext design on the WWWeb, because to be a good teacher you have
>to attune yourself to your naive witness, in order to be able to reach
>your students at their level...
>
>But how are we to overthrow the academic establishment, with their
>fraudulent denial of these simple truths???

Are you annoyed that the military spent a fortune in tax-payers money
on Schanks project ? Perhaps you are annoyed with Schanks arrogance (as
you perceive it). You are not winning me over here, but then I might
be what you call an academic.

Academia does not have a monopoly on folly --- commerce, private
industry and just about every other human activity is prone to
blunders, stupidity, sycophancy and sheer waste.

Liam
--
 Liam Relihan,                                        Voice: +353-61-202713
 CSIS, Schumann Building,        [space]                Fax: +353-61-330876
 University Of Limerick,                             E-mail: relihanl@ul.ie
 Ireland.                      http://itdsrv1.ul.ie/PERSONNEL/lrelihan.html


