Lecture Thursday 17 February 2005

Soc. At the Egyptian city of Naucratis, there was a famous old god, whose name was Theuth; the bird which is called the Ibis is sacred to him, and he was the inventor of many arts, such as arithmetic and calculation and geometry and astronomy and draughts and dice, but his great discovery was the use of letters. Now in those days the god Thamus was the king of the whole country of Egypt; and he dwelt in that great city of Upper Egypt which the Hellenes call Egyptian Thebes, and the god himself is called by them Ammon. To him came Theuth and showed his inventions, desiring that the other Egyptians might be allowed to have the benefit of them; he enumerated them, and Thamus enquired about their several uses, and praised some of them and censured others, as he approved or disapproved of them. It would take a long time to repeat all that Thamus said to Theuth in praise or blame of the various arts. But when they came to letters, This, said Theuth, will make the Egyptians wiser and give them better memories; it is a specific both for the memory and for the wit. Thamus replied: O most ingenious Theuth, the parent or inventor of an art is not always the best judge of the utility or inutility of his own inventions to the users of them. And in this instance, you who are the father of letters, from a paternal love of your own children have been led to attribute to them a quality which they cannot have; for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.

from the Phaedrus
(http://www.units.muohio.edu/technologyandhumanities/plato.htm)


A list of names--an attribute--each representing an individual.

Identifier
Label...access
differentiation
individualization
unitize/quantize
rules of the game/frames what it is in part that's going on here: individuals--social contract--open discussion
familial relations
associative triggers

they don't carry information but they do enter a realm where associations are swirling; sometimes those intersectings are informative, sometimes not

genre
------
representations: western/mystery/sci fi
plot and conflict

genesis/classic/revision/parodic

how the labels are being used: what's our context?


WHAT's IN A NAME?
re: kripke...


what does a representation inherently do?
there's nothing "in" it...but it interacts with a system in certain ways

course listings on web site
names
course department abbreviation/number
number indicative of level
course title
description
prerequisites
equivalents
free-text description
credit hours

perusing/browsing a curriculum

doesn't tell whether it will fit into a semester's schedule
class size
who's teaching it
quality of course




what do we not know:
required course