386 - Data, interpretations and notions
N. Lygeros
Translated from the Greek by Athena Kehagias
Although visibly, data constitutes of the most stable element of knowledge, in actual fact it’s interpretation has a greater value. Stability alone is not necessarily positive, because it is not by definition dynamic and indeed can not directly configure it’s environment. So initially, the questioning of data is necessary in order to cause a speculation which will produce a new interpretation. The challenge could at least superficially be negative and critical. But these properties are not it’s substance, because what matters is not to learn but to understand. Therefore, the questioning of data forcing the thinker to reconsider his thoughts, gives the stimulus of creation.
In a more theoretical field, the success of a theory produces a given thought which in time it would be difficult to dispute. The difficulty initially derives from the non existence of a problem. So the wider and stable field of a theory creates a sense of data. While in science with Popper’s criterion we know that a theory can not be verified. The only thing we can prove is its mistakes. So even in education nothing should be taken for granted. Every conclusion must be based on information we have challenged because there is no perfect theory of reality. In other words, the theory does not contain in it’s structure all cases. The knowledge of the non existence of perfect knowledge, though simplistically it appears as negative,it offers the freedom of thought to the thinker. There is no absolute system, so the structure of thought can not be a closed world and mental schemes are necessarily dynamic. In this new cognitive framework, nothing is for granded.
For example, the construction of the vertices of a square is considered simple, but it’s not simplistic, because if we don’t clarify the context, simplicity is not easy to calculate. The theorem of Mohr-Mascheroni that consists of equivalence in shape construction with a ruler and a compass and only with a compass gives a more complicated notion to the simplicity of the construction. Because even if the end result is the same, the process is substantially different. The difficulty of construction is not independent from the tool.
Then how is the notion of data and simplicity determined ? And what happens when the tool is the computer? Because the dynamics of the tool comes in contradiction with the stability of the data. And we are already seeing that research in the field of artificial intelligence offer new interpretations even for normal intelligence to avoid saying human.
The twosome, student-teacher should no longer be based on the classic data since it’s all questionable. The study of knowledge must occur be in a dynamic context, where both elements of the couple have a role to play. The mere creation of the Socratic rhetoric offers the ideal conditions for a deep understanding of problems. Because education is not only a lesson, as research is not only a culture. Both of them are cognitive tasks. Without the effective use of intelligence, both lose their notion and are no longer fields of thought . The couple is not a conventional and social item. It is an enhanced human relationship that functions through time.