John, your writing on HYBRID STRUCTURES is educational for me and I
appreciate it. I am not sure, however, how it relates to the
possibilities of hypertext. I am willing to accept that the uses you
have attempted and the ones you are interested are not amenable to
hypertext. However, these do not constitute the whole domain of
possibility as far as I can tell.
I have not attempted it on Internet and am not in a hurry to do so
(particularly given your description). I have used it to analyse
text where a whole group of texts is on my hard disk. I have also
used it to enable distributed (and relatively powerless) members of
an organisation to participate in the creation of theory, strategy
and vision for an organisation.
These uses are the very opposite of the assumptions that you make,
ie.
> I do have one theoretical problem with hypertext. It seems to be founded
> in the assumption that knowledge can be organized in the form of a
> hierarchy, and that the best way to study a hierarchy is to go down one
> long path through it, without ever seeing the whole hierarchy. It also
> seems to be founded in the assumption that hierarchy is the most general
> form of knowledge organization.
Hypertext, in my understanding and use, does not assume that
knowledge need be organised in the form of a hierarchy (although in
some cases I suppose it can be). It is a tool which enables anybody
to bypass any hierarchy of knowledge and go down their own paths and
to save those paths - hopefully with enhancements of their own
thinking or reasoning added - for others to pursue *in their own
fashion*. It is certainly leaving optional the method of seeing the
original hierarchy or not and keeping it in view or not.
For instance, if you were to go through Peirce in your own way, and
then could offer that pathway with your comments so that I could
follow your path and your reasoning without having to -but still with
the option - of following the original Peirce, I would love that
opportunity. This is an example of a possibility of hypertext.
Another similar one: my friend and mentor Howard Sherman knows more
philosophy and its sources than I expect I'll ever see in anyone. He
is not going to write a book and, apart from my private sessions with
him, the world is not getting much of his thinking. If he had the
texts of many of these thinkers and would create a pathway of
reference and meaning through them, I would spend many happy years
studying and learning what he has to offer.
-- Michael McMaster Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk