Dan you are totally correct. The sentence structure is a mess. I knew that when I said it, and said it intentionally... to make a point: "Opening" an OST is a serious joke. It is serious because useful good stuff happens, and it is a joke because we don't really open anything. It already is (open). What we do do is playfully remind people of what they already know, but may have forgotten. Emphasis: playfully. Law, Principles, and Final Admonition, all best done with a smile J
ho Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Dr. Potomac, MD 20854 USA 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer) Camden, Maine 04843 Phone 301-365-2093 (summer) 207-763-3261 www.openspaceworld.com www.ho-image.com (Personal Website) To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org> http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Daniel Mezick Sent: Saturday, October 26, 2013 2:07 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [OSList] : Speech acts Howdy Harrison, This background story on the "wonderful internal contradiction" does explain the curiously dissonant sentence structure of "Be prepared to be surprised." "Be prepared to be surprised" is a directive, a structure that is dissonant and might even be in conflict with the concepts of self-management, self-governance, self-organization et al. I have been studying, arranging and facilitating OST meetings for over 5 years, and I just noticed this curious fact for the 1st time. Probably something to do with the books I'm reading lately. And this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Austin Austin pointed out that we use language to do things as well as to assert things, and that the utterance of a statement like "I promise to do so-and-so" is best understood as doing something - making a promise - rather than making an assertion about anything. Hence the name of one of his best-known works: "How to do Things with Words". Kind Regards, Dan On 10/26/13 11:38 AM, Michael M Pannwitz wrote: you couldnt, because you are already dead mmp On 26.10.2013 17:35, Harrison Owen wrote: Actually Dan - it is and always has been a serious joke, with (I think) a wonderful internal contradiction. If you were really prepared to be surprised, you couldn't be surprised... or could you J ho Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Dr. Potomac, MD 20854 USA 189 Beaucaire Ave. (summer) Camden, Maine 04843 Phone 301-365-2093 (summer) 207-763-3261 www.openspaceworld.com <www.openspaceworld.com%20> www.ho-image.com <www.ho-image.com%20> (Personal Website) To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of OSLIST Go to:http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org *From:*[email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Daniel Mezick *Sent:* Saturday, October 26, 2013 9:18 AM *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* [OSList] : Speech acts When responding to Jenifer's thoughts earlier, I realized: The slogan "Be Prepared to Be Surprised" is a most interesting one in OST. It is actually an illocutionary speech act.... of type "*/Directive/*". So, located here in OST, baked into it, we have a specific slogan that is attempting to *cause* the hearer to take a particular action, e.g. a request, *commands* and advice. A directive! I wonder if the undeniably directive structure of "Be Prepared to Be Surprised" really aligned with the intention/spirit/philosophy of OST. Dan Background links: What is a speech act? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_acts A */speech act/* in linguistics <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics> and the philosophy of language <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_language> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_language> is an utterance that has performative function in language and communication. What is an illocutionary act? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illocutionary_act *Illocutionary act* is a term in linguistics <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics> introduced by the philosopher John L. Austin <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Austin> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Austin> in his investigation of the various aspects of speech acts <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_acts> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speech_acts>. What is a Directive illocutionary act? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illocutionary_act#Classes_of_illocutionary_acts *directives* = speech acts that are to *cause the hearer to take a particular action*, e.g. requests, commands and advice More than you asked for: What is a Commissive speech act? *commissives* = speech acts that commit a speaker to some future action, e.g. promises and oaths On 10/24/13 1:29 PM, Jenifer Toksvig wrote: Dan wrote: >> Consider the man who loves a certain woman, and waits for the current trend of her interest in him to change. He is goal seeking without controlling. Likewise, trend-following market traders do not attempt to create, control or make trends. They simply identify & ride them, while seeking wealth. << Waiting and seeking are still forms of controlling. Your loving man has chosen to wait for his goal rather than (to coin a phrase) being prepared to be surprised by another woman. He may not be trying to control her, but he's still trying to control the situation in a way that he thinks will allow him to achieve his goal. Those who seek wealth do likewise: they don't randomly ride the trends, they identify them and make choices about how to ride them, in order to obtain wealth. That is control. I don't think it's possible to be goal-oriented and try to exert some kind of control over the process, unless your goal is. to have no goal. Actually, even being prepared to be surprised is a goal. A sort of wonderfully ridiculous one. Jen x *Jenifer Toksvig *www.acompletelossforwords.com <http://www.acompletelossforwords.com> <http://www.acompletelossforwords.com> *The Copenhagen Interpretation *www.thecopenhageninterpretation.co.uk <http://www.thecopenhageninterpretation.co.uk> <http://www.thecopenhageninterpretation.co.uk> _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> <mailto:[email protected]> To unsubscribe send an email [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> <mailto:[email protected]> To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org -- Daniel Mezick, President New Technology Solutions Inc. (203) 915 7248 (cell) Bio <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/> <http://newtechusa.net/dan-mezick/>. Blog <http://newtechusa.net/blog/> <http://newtechusa.net/blog/>. Twitter <http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/> <http://twitter.com/#%21/danmezick/>. 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