Subject: Re: one small function From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 06:18:47 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3222310728383257@naggum.net> * Bulent Murtezaoglu | But how is this integration or rather its necessity and utility is to be | learned? I have no idea. Some people do, some people don't. | Unless _great_ teaching _and_ mentoring is available, it seems listening | to more than one of these great stories and maybe believing a few for a | period is a workable way to gain the reflex of integration you point to. | I think the danger you describe is brief in effect, and, at any rate, | worth taking. I think, from observing children, that this desire to understand how new things they hear match what they previously heard or understood and coming up with new understanding on their own and being able to deal _productively_ with cognitive dissonance instead of the apparent default to reject the new out of hand and just keep believing the old, starts at a very early age and is not actually _learned_, but is more acquired as a general attitude towards the world and their interaction with it. Some seem to grasp that cognitive dissonance is not a threat to their beliefs and do not generally believe all kinds of crap to begin with, from the get go, but others may learn how to deal with new information if they are provided with a very safe and secure setting where being upset (some seem to think they have been "lied" to if they have revise their view of something) is handled appropriately by their parents. I have seen how making it more painful to stick to an old belief than to adopt a new one can jump-start this process in adults who don't generally get it, but a few people go postal when they are presented with anything that even hints at their being _wrong_ about something. /// -- In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none. In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.