Approved-By:  EDTECH Moderator <21765EDT@MSU.BITNET>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.edtech
Date:         Mon, 14 Dec 1992 17:09:13 EST
From:         A.J.Birchall@compsci.liverpool.ac.uk
Subject:      Re: Gravity as a social construction

> >I meant that gravity is a concept invented and used in our society to exlain
> >some physical phenomena.
> >Steve Tripp
> >ci52@ukanvax.bitnet
> *********************
> >The concept, sure.  But the phenomenon described by that concept, no.
> >the phenomenon exists apart from social negotiation.
> >herb lin
> >HLIN@NAS
>
> The social construction of knowledge is neither a philosophical issue nor an
> issue of what is really "out there" in the "real" world.
>
> We ALL construct our knowledge of the concept of gravity in a social context.
> I fall down, ask why and Mommy says gravity.  I spill milk, ask why, Mommy say
> gravity.  No one can argue that the experiences I used to develop my notion of
> gravity are the same as anyone else's, nor were they constructed in isolation,
> just between me and abstract gravity! Gravity as an idea is part of our
 culture
> and is socially re-invented in each new child's mind.
>
> MICHAEL YOUNG, PH.D.             INTERNET:MYOUNG@UCONNVM.UCONN.EDU

This debate about gravity as a social construction has usefully served
to remind me of something I recently read in the book "Voices of the
Mind: A Sociocultural Approach to Mediated Action" by James V.
Wertsch, published by Harvarester Wheatsheaf (1991).  The main
significance of this book for me was that it provided a means for
exploring and explaining how the individual interacts with the
totality of his or her environment; that is, it provides conceptual
tools for thinking about how inner mental activity is determined by
and also determines social activity.  To do this, Wertsch combined the
ideas of two Russian scholars, Vygotsky and Bakhtin.

According to Wertsch, Vygotsky's view was that the child's mastery of
scientific concepts (of which gravity is an example) "...is
fundamentally linked with participation in discourse of a particular
type, namely, formal instructional discourse in classrooms."  The
child learns to speak and think about decontextualised "linguistic
objects".  "In addition to using language to represent nonlinguistic
reality, a new reality in the form of decontextualized sign types can
now be represented and operated on."

This suggests a way of clarifying the question of whether gravity is a
social construction or an aspect of substantive reality.  Clearly, the
phenomenon of objects falling to the ground is part of nonlinguistic
reality.  Yet the attribution of this phenomenon to the force of
gravity, which cannot be directly experienced, is a socially
sanctioned way of accounting for it.  Considered as a linguistic
object, the concept of gravity carries with it a particular view of
how the world works, and to attribute a phenonemon as due to the force
of gravity invokes this view.

So I see I am in agreement with Steve Tripp, Herb Lin, and Michael Young.

--
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Alexander John Birchall    Voice: (+44) 51 794 3700
Dept of Computer Science   Fax: (+44) 51 708 6502
Chadwick Tower             alex@uk.ac.liverpool.compsci
Liverpool University
Liverpool L69 3BX
England

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