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percy-l - Re: A Modest Proposal

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Subject: Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion on Walker Percy

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  • From: "Rhonda McDonnell" <rhonda_mcdonnell AT hotmail.com>
  • To: percy-l AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: A Modest Proposal
  • Date: Sat, 04 May 2002 20:00:51 +0000


From: "James Piat" <piat1 AT bellsouth.net>
Reply-To: "Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion" <percy-

Newton's laws of motion --things in motion tend to stay in motion --for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Those refer to dyadic relations. Actions and re-actions. On the other hand learning --such as S-R operant conditions described by Skinner or classical conditioning describe by Pavlov --those are triadic relations involving three indispensable and conjoined elements --a stimulus, a response and a consequence

Hmmm, Jim, I don't know that I agree. My understanding of S-R tells me that it's dyadic. It isn't much different from your description of Newton's laws of motion in that sense. Nikki himself gave us the first piece of the triadic relationship: "Let me suggest that each of us try to come up with a very concrete example from the real world that illustrates for our friend just what the usefulness of all this discussion truly is." When we think about what a triadic relationship IS and how it might be represented through language, and then we actually attempt to render it into language that might be understood by the rest of the list, so that we all nod and say, "yes, that's what it is" then we are doing our part in the relationship. In MESSAGE IN THE BOTTLE "The Symbolic Structure of Interpersonal Process" Percy writes, "The very act of symbolic formulation, whether it be language, logic, art, or even thinking, is of its very nature a formulation for a someone else."

While your response seems like it may be in accord with Peirce's thinking, I'm not sure we can answer Nikki's question concerning what the point of it all is without applying Percy. What we're engaged in on this list is the point of it--making meaning out of this world. We can't do that without triadic interaction, and I still don't get the point unless, as Percy says, we're doing it with and for others. Which brings me back to the S-R business--in what way is that triadic communication?

Cheers,

Rhonda



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