If a Tree Falls...

If a tree falls in a forest does it make a noise if no one hears it? According to reason, logic, and the laws of physics the answer is obvious. Of course it does. Now watch this. I can show you how postmodern thinking disagrees by asserting, "If there is no one to hear the sound the sound does not exist." (I told you this stuff was too serious to be taken seriously.)

This is so serious it gets at the heart of what postmodern thinking is about. Ready?

Post modern thinking has many components. No one definition can serve as the definition. Here is one description. Reality is socially constructed. That means in a nutshell: we define, we perceive, we create what we decide "reality" to be.

Illustrations. My Dad was color blind. Red was green and green was red. For most of the population red is red and green is green. Chicago built the famous (at the time infamous) "Picasso" sculpture over 30 years ago. For the majority it was either an oddity or an absurdity. Today it is a cultural icon and landmark. An old movie called "The Gods Must be Angry" was about a coke bottle that fell out of an airplane and hit an African woodsman. He and his companion, not knowing what a coke bottle was, decided the gods must be angry and that this "thing" needed to be given back to the gods in the nearest holy city.
What do all three stories have in common? Perception. Socially constructed perception.

Put another way: society (us and a whole lot of other "us"es) over time and space make decisions about what is real and what is truth. Is there anything wrong with this? Not necessarily. Though in another post I'll show how controversial,political, and powerful the social construction of our (and others') truths can be.

Back to the noiseless falling tree. Science, medicine, and biology all agree that we hear sounds through our ears. Therefore, no ears to hear it fall means it made no sound. Silly you say? Right you are. It is only because we have "proven" that ears are a means to an end namely hearing, we cannot conceive a "thing" can make a sound without ears. Even if we are not there in the woods when the tree falls we still "hear" the crash in our ear's "eye". It is inconceivable to imagine a soundless tree falling. Unless someone turns down the sound.
It is inconceivable because we socially believe ears and sound are synonymous. No ears therefore no sound. No sound therefore no ears to hear.

So when a tree falls does it make a sound? Science says yes. Postmodern thinking says it depends upon where you stand. If we all (or most) agree ears and hearing belong together then we have socially constructed a truth using science to do so.
I told you this is a serious game. This is serious play.

Welcome Postmodernists

Welcome postmodernists to my blog. Welcome to our blog of postmodern conversations.

It is my blog when I'm sending. It is your blog when you read it.

Of course, for those of you who have some understanding of postmodern thinking already know that my opening paragraph has a modernist meaning. In our modern days (or ways) of thinking we would view this blog as having two opposites: senders and receivers. Not so simple with postmodern "logic".

There is no true blue blogger (or author) without simultaneously having implied a receiver (or reader). Modern thinking separates "either/or" (or binary thinking) into categories of opposites. I'll elaborate on this at greater length latter. For now, know that modern thinking (also called Western reason or science) divides reality into two parts or more and they each stand independent of one another. We know oil and water don't mix. Neither do good or evil. Neither do bad or good. Neither do right or wrong. Modern thinking is about categories of correctness. Ethics, truth, theology, religion, philosophy each have a modernist way of interpreting reality in dualistic/binary terms with a versus often between them.

Back to the original point. As I sit here and write I am not an objective interpreter or author of my words. I bring my history from other writers whom I have read. Neither are you simply a reader. You are also an author with your own history of how you perceive these words. Author and reader are also reader and author. We are both-and not either/or. So as you read you are doing several possible things at once.

You could be trying to comprehend and say, "This fellow doesn't make any sense". You could be comprehending and say, "This fellow could have done a better job of explaining himself "You could be saying, "So where is this guy going with all this? What's his point?" You could say, "What has this got to do with postmodern thinking?"

Or another possibility: "Who cares?" At which point you may have moved on to some other website, link, blog, twitter, facebook, etc.

Since you made it this far I will redo the opening from a postmodern perspective.

A blog about postmodern thinking is much too serious to be taken seriously.

So I purpose we (interpreters of reality) enjoy blogging our hearts out.

The word games have begun. Tag we're it.