[Air-l] Reification was Definitions

[Sam Tilden]

Steve,
   
  Within the archives of this list are unresolved threads related to this subject. I am not the first nor will I be the last to raise the questions. You asked why these terms need to be defined and I say because they are not resolved. It is raising the questions that generate new ideas. I think that is what we do.
   
  Community, within the boundaries of the internet, is no more virtual than conference calls are virtual. Terms, relative to "cyberspace" that use virtual become more and more specious as this communication tool is woven into the fabric of daily life. But I ask, was the friendship or familial relationships virtual when it took a month to get a letter. Were penpals not pals.
   
  Ascribing virtuality to communities of people who inter-relate on the internet are no less robust than those generated in "Realspace associations. Most evidence suggest communities form and are robust but are they virtual? The social scientists in our midst have affirmed the formation of communites that is not in dispute.
   
  On another note, scholarship, it seems to me, is about constantly seeking refinement for the understanding of basic principals. More often, like piety, just slightly out of reach.
   
  While there may not be agreement on what is knowledge, it is the quest that defines the role of scholarship. The people you mentioned may not have agreed on the precise details of the method but they did have a basic understanding that methods were necessary. One thing they did agree on is, to some degree of certainty, that the results once known would be observable by others.
   
  As I said earlier, unsuported assertions are either opinions or fictions no matter how elegant or literary.
   
  Communities yes, but virtual communities can be easily falsified.
   
  There's nothing going on but exploration.
   
  Pax electronica,
   
  Sam
  

"Dr. Steve Eskow" <drseskow at cox.net> wrote:
   

 		
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