Friday, March 27, 2009

Its nice to finally be back on a subject that doesn't involve me getting frustrated with the program (lexia). Idhe is a little easier to get your hands around. My main thought on his classifications between hermeneutic and embodiment is that almost everything I can come up with can be in both categories. I understand how to classify them, but it seems that some technology can even transition from one to the other as you use it. Take the cane for the blind man. While we said it was an embodiment example, I'd challenge it to say it started off as hermeneutic. He had to adapt to the cane at first before it became part of hime, so to speak. Somewhere along the line it became less of an object and more an extension of the arm. Any other items you can think of that fit under both categories, or transitioned from one to the other as they were used?

5 comments:

  1. I think you're right - just about everything can be in both categories. To use one of Idhe's own examples, the dental probe starts off as a hermeneutic experience as the dentist becomes used to its weight and the sorts of feedback it gives, and what that feedback signifies. Then it moves to an embodiment relationship as he learns to incorporate the feedback from the instrument into his experience of the tooth. To suddenly remove the instrument (say, if a new type of probe came along), would probably leave the dentist confused because the feedback from both tool and tooth have become essential parts of the mental picture he constructs.

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  2. This is really interesting...I didn't read your post before I wrote my entry, but we seem to be saying pretty much the same thing. I used the example of eyeglasses and how they start as hermeneutic (or opaque) and eventually, can become embodiment (or transparent.) So, I agree with you 100%...it is difficult to place a technology in only one of the categories, as it can have different effects on different peoples' experiences.

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  3. i understand and agree with what your going with this. After thinking about it, it is true what you said. i think that everything that we have out there have been hermeneutic then to embodiment or vice versa..

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  4. I agree, almost everything can be argued in both categories. I think things tend to start out as embodiment relations and eventually can be explained as a hermeneutic relation.

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  5. if one person knows how to transition from one to another and back again, does that make that person a more effective learner?

    I think education could use fresh ideas like that :)

    Shuhan

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