Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 01:27:21 -0800
From: hugh bone <hughbone-AT-worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: A Reading of the Dossier


Gerald M. Swatez wrote:
> 
> At 9:55 PM -0800 3/19/99, hugh bone wrote:
> >Enough of cataloging, referencing, talking about other people.
> >
> >What do *you* think is important in Le Differend, and what questions
> >arise in your mind that we (not the experts) are invited to comment on?
> 
> I think, Hugh, that "we come from different places".
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yes.

 
> I think we speak, each of us, in a different voice than does the other, and
> that we all tend to hear each other in our own voice. I think that "hearing
> the other" is very difficult.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
At times.
 
(If one person uses one phrase regime, within
> one genre of discourse, and the other person uses another, can they be in communication?)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"genre of discourse" is an analytical device, like grammar.  People 
speak and understand without knowing either device.  

Like gravity and  air, language imposes limitations. What we can say or
cannot say.  Perhaps even to "have" ideas?

Understanding the meaning of a word we use, or the need for a word to
express a meaning we would like to communicate.

> I think that establishing a common ground is essential. (I think we need to
> dance around each other for a while to get a feel each for the others, so
> that we can then begin to communicate in earnest.)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Something like that - tolerance, openness, patience.


> I think that what is important in Le Differend is the beginning Lyotard
> seems to me to make in explicating (clarifying, establishing) how/why we tend to stand on different grounds in our communications with each other.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I don't remember much ot that.  He seems to stress hidden power of 
language to influence us in vital ways, such as justice or injustice.

> (I wonder who else has said some of the same things he has.)
>
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

with respect to "explicating, clarifying our different grounds"?  --
Don't
know.

Best,
Hugh