The only thing we learn from history is that we do not learn from history.
(This quote and variations of it can be found easily.) Considering the fact that each and everyone seems to stumble over this insight sooner or later it could well be based on a wee bit of eternal truth. However, if it is, it is hiding it very well. Indeed, what it shows is that history of history is unknown. Speaking of learning, it is not taught either.
[w]
Today, when using a local e-learning platform to get information about a course on “Interdisciplinary Communication” I learned the imperative way that interdisciplinary communication is inaccessible to guests. Even more so, it is forbidden.
There you learn. Faster than any course could do.
At the end of a lecture series (again, and again on human ecology) students were asked for feedback about the lecture series as part of their exams. In order to get a certificate, students have to hand in a written statement including critical feedback about the lecture series.
If I was in need of self-affirmation, I would just do the same. Critical thinking is all good and praiseworthy. Indeed. Please criticize! Them, me, and don’t forget yourself!
Double binds and Catch-22s might be fun as part of brain-teasers, and they build grounds for game theoretic prisoner’s dilemmas. Though, some might want to keep in mind that double binds have also long been discussed in the context of schizophrenia. As much as they are versatile means of breaking one’s personality and self-esteem they are essential not only to modern techniques of torture.
On no side’s side:
You want feedback? — You got it.
Concluding my recent praise of Stefan Böschen’s Praise The Paradox I wrote
He was lucky nobody listened to him.
Here are 2 excerpts from the transcription of an audio recording of the conferences final discussion:
To begin with, Stefan fosters his praise of paradox by stating that part and counterpart complement each other. He explains that thinking of any thing means to distinguish the thing from what it is not, its opposite. He then underlines the importance of this concept with a short reference to life’s essential interplay of order and chaos.
The next speaker replies:
What I am still missing is consciousness.
And he continues to tell a story of the demise of corner shops, small groceries and merchants, and how we are all involved.
At a second occasion, Stefan Böschen reinforces his praise of the paradox. He refers to its ambivalence and its inevitability. Finally, he reminds us to be sensitive to unintended side-effects of decisiveness and unambiguity, and that this sensibility should be one of the objectives of any educational system.
The next speaker (by the way, not the same) replies:
This, simply, is not enough.
He says, he misses analysis and perspective. And he concludes with “this will lead us nowhere”, cuts himself, and continues to reply to someone else.
