Text 220, 100 rader
Skriven 2006-01-21 11:24:50 av Ardith Hinton (1:153/716.0)
    Kommentar till text 219 av James Bradley (1:134/77.0)
Ärende: What's in a Name?
=========================
Hi, James!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

JB>  I'll just make a cursory reply for today.


           And I'll do the same, before I hit you with my next message.... 
:-))



JB>  I'm a little foggy, this Alan is the fictional
JB>  character, who was described by two "articles"
JB>  from different authors.


           Alan Breck Stewart was a real person & so was Colin Campbell... but
I didn't know that when I read the novel.  The event reported in the two
articles, i.e. the murder of Colin Campbell, is widely recognized as an actual
event.  The Stewarts & the Campbells were (basically) on opposite sides in a
civil war which was going on in Scotland at the time.  The novelist used the
names of both men & the idea that there was no love lost between the Stewarts &
the Campbells in his work... but if anybody knows who killed Colin Campbell
they're not telling.  :-)



JB>  Maybe the story isn't the story, but how
JB>  two newspaper articles can elicit different
JB>  impressions of the same story.


           Exactly....  :-)



JB>  Article A told us this tax collector was shot
JB>  dead, and article B tells us he had some muscle
JB>  with him, when he was shot dead?


           Right.  The unknown assailant was apparently lurking in the woods,
at the top of a hill.  I imagine s/he would probably have high-tailed it as
soon as the intended target had been hit in order to get a head start on the
soldiers... and the safest place for Colin Campbell's nephew to be was with his
corpse!  The nephew doesn't come across as such a hero if we know about the
soldiers....  ;-)



JB>  Just what I was about to say, when this stuff was
JB>  swirling around in my subconscious, "P" was stand
JB>  for "person" (I did mention I needed a soak, right?|-)
JB>  but I had the "J" for "judgemental" (Ya, I added
JB>  the "mental" part. Smart remarks not required.)


           Okay, I see this needs a bit more explanation!  Here's a continuum:

              never... seldom... sometimes... often... always

Here's another continuum:

              1.......................................... 100

And here's another:

              perception........................... judgement


I tend toward the "perception" end of the scale.  I try to report objectively
on what I've observed... and I've deliberately chosen as an example something
which happened a long time ago in Scotland because it doesn't matter to me
who's right or wrong.  Folks whose reasoning style is more toward the
"judgement" end of the scale sound more like the author of Article #1 than the
author of Article #2.  I can see... now that I understand the theory of
preferred reasoning styles... why I had so many students who couldn't grasp the
idea of objective reporting.  Some people will swear they don't hear any
negativity in adjectives like "stupid" and "cowardly"... but watch what happens
when others describe them that way!  Author #1 is an extreme example I chose
for educational purposes.  While those who tend toward the "J" end of the scale
can be judgemental, in the sense that they often editorialize & criticize as
Author #1 did, they're not all that extreme....  :-)



JB>  I was thinking, even a Judge needs to acknowledge
JB>  a personal side.


           Yes.  I realize Author #2 may have his own opinions about who's
right & who's wrong... and he may influence our opinions by what he chooses to
tell us or not tell us about what happened.  But in court cases, judges often
spend some time reviewing all the available evidence before handing down a
verdict....  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver BC, CANADA [604-266-5271] (1:153/716)