Ritual Knowledge LO6515

Marion Brady (mbrady@digital.net)
Mon, 8 Apr 1996 14:37:49 -0400 (EDT)

Replying to LO6427 --

Barry Mallis writes:

>I kinda like those two words ["ritual knowledge"]together, Marion. . . .

>Ritual knowledge is sometimes wonderful, perhaps mostly needed, to
>counteract knowledge with no context, knowledge shorn or ethical
>foundation and human touch. Oh that the world had access to fulfilling
>and positive, moral and enlightening ritual knowledge!

If I understand Barry correctly, he's defending ritual knowledge
against my criticism of it as constituting much of the content of general
education.
I think we must have a differing conception of ritual knowledge.
When I wrote the phrase, what I had in mind was, in Barry's words,
"knowledge with no context," "knowledge shorn of ethical foundation and
human touch," knowledge that wasn't "fulfilling and positive, moral and
enlightening. . ."
The "ritual knowledge" I had in mind was knowledge that's passed
along to the next generation for no reason other than than it was received
from the previous generation, without having to meet any selection
criteria, or fit into any sort of conceptual framework that gives it
significance, or even meaning.

-- 

Marion Brady mbrady@digital.net

Marion

<mbrady@digital.net> http://ddi.digital.net/~mbrady

-- 

Marion Brady <mbrady@digital.net>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>