"To talk about things of which one knows nothing"
- Details
- Parent Category: Engels
- Category: Training
- Created: Sunday, January 29 2017 21:30
- Published: Sunday, January 29 2017 21:30
- Written by Bart
Kennemer Dunes, January 29, 2017. Training [ from scratch ]
"[ Plato wrote: ] "They [ who have read what others have written ] will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing." It was Rousseau's point when he said: "I hate books. They teach one to talk about things of which one knows nothing." The objection is not that the behaviour is wrong [...] but that what is being talked about plays no part in it. [...] We distrust sheer topography. Verbal behaviour, transmitted as sheer form of response, appears to leave knowledge behind. A man may correctly repeat what someone has just said, or read what someone has written, or recite what he has learned without knowing what he is saying. […] Verbal behaviour which is topographically accurate but not accepted as a sign of knowledge is often called meaningless. Nonverbal behaviour can also be meaningless; the student may not know what he is doing when he merely imitates an instructor or follows directions. [ Meaning ] refers to controlling variables. […] "To impart knowledge" is to bring behaviour of given topography under the control of given variables. A curious feature of knowledge, is that it must be stored. […] We induce people to remember by making events significant […] by punishing not remembering. A person who is learning a list of nonsense syllables […] is behaving under contingencies [ i.e.: a future event or circumstance which is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty ] designed to maximise the probability of recall. [...]
The difficulty inherent in contrived contingencies have drawn attention to natural reinforcers. Rousseau explained in detail how they might be used. […] Away with man-made punishment and -- this was Rousseau's special contribution -- away with man-made awards! Man is naturally happy and good; it is society which corrupts and makes him miserable; let him therefore be taught by nature. […] Use only those forms of coercion or punishment which arise naturally from his behaviour; if he breaks a window, do not repair it, but let him experience a cold room. Use only natural awards."
B.F. Skinner 'The Technology of Teaching', page 152, 153, 202, 203, 205 first published in 1968 by Prentice-Hall, Inc., USA
"It's dangerous so dangerous
I wanna do it again
It's dangerous so dangerous
I wanna do it again"
David Guetta ft. Sam Martin - Dangerous (Robin Schulz Remix Radio Edit), by French music producer David Guetta from his sixth studio album, 'Listen', first released in 2014
"MELANIE
(referring to the tape)
It's boring, isn't it?
LOUIS
I can sit through it once.
MELANIE
He thinks he's Joe Gunn now.
LOUIS
I'm impressed. He knows a lot.
MELANIE
He's just repeating shit he
overheard. He ain't any more a gun
expert than I am."
From: 'Jackie Brown' written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's 1992 novel 'Rum Punch'
