Epistemological and Ontological Propositions

Abstract

In this chapter it is suggested that the reader keep in mind the comparison between a person-to-person transaction in contrast to a person-to-object transaction (as discussed in Chapter 2). The question addressed is what makes understanding of another person or persons possible. As stated earlier the construction of a discursive, person-to-person relationship starts in early childhood and is a progressive, gradually evolving complex learning process, especially in its contrast with the operational person-to-object transaction that the child soon learns to master. (Often there is confusion between the two during early childhood). In the person-to-object relationship Euclidean geometry prevails while the person-to-person relationship is based on hyperbolic space in which movement (behavior) changes not only the positions of persons vis-a-vis one another, but also modifies the person in the process. In other words, the identity of a person at the beginning of a discourse and at the end of the discourse is not the same.

Portions of Chapters 3 and 4 have appeared in a separate publication. See Rettig (1989).