How academics say "Law of Fives"

[Cain]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_constructionism

Social constructionism or social constructivism is a sociological theory of knowledge based on Hegel's ideas, and developed by Durkheim at the turn of the century. It became prominent in the U.S. with Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann's 1966 book, The Social Construction of Reality. The focus of social constructionism is to uncover the ways in which individuals and groups participate in the creation of their perceived reality. It involves looking at the ways social phenomena are created, institutionalized, and made into tradition by humans. Socially constructed reality is seen as an ongoing, dynamic process; reality is re-produced by people acting on their interpretations and their knowledge of it. Berger and Luckmann argue that all knowledge, including the most basic, taken-for-granted common sense knowledge of everyday reality, is derived from and maintained by social interactions. When people interact, they do so with the understanding that their respective perceptions of reality are related, and as they act upon this understanding their common knowledge of reality becomes reinforced. Since this common sense knowledge is negotiated by people, human typifications, significations and institutions come to be presented as part of an objective reality. It is in this sense that it can be said that reality is socially constructed.

Within social constructionist thought, a social construction (social construct) is an idea which may appear to be natural and obvious to those who accept it, but in reality is an invention or artifact of a particular culture or society. The implication is that social constructs are in some sense human choices rather than laws resulting from divine will or nature. This is not usually taken to imply a radical anti-determinism, however.[citation needed]

Social constructionism is dialectically opposed to essentialism, the belief that there are defining transhistorical essences independent of conscious beings that determine the categorical structure of reality. The specific mechanisms underlying Berger and Luckmann's notion of social construction are discussed further in social construction.

[AFK]

interesting stuff.  Brings the "grids" discussions to my mind as well as Law of 5s.  Kind of sounds like, maybe, a social construct is a point on a grid.  A grid being a collection of social constructs.  Or maybe I need to finish my lunch and think about this some more. 

[Cain]

You might want to try and relate that idea to meme-plexes .

But maybe I say too much too soon....

[Cramulus]

Good post, Cain. If anyone's interested in seeing how this model applies to science, check out Laboratory Life by Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar. They're sociologists who sat in a neuro lab and tried to watch how scientists make reality. The book talks about how credibility is the real currency of the scientific community - how you earn it when you say something good, lose it when you publish something stupid, and spend it to try to prove a point. A lot of the "this guy is right" vs "this guy is wrong", and thereby the creation of scientific consensus, has to do with the perceived credibility of the speaker.

reallllly interesting stuff

[AFK]

Thus why many know of Edison but far fewer know of Tesla.  (okay they're quasi-scientists but it was the best I could come up with at the moment)

[LMNO]

A lot of the "this guy is right" vs "this guy is wrong", and thereby the creation of scientific consensus, has to do with the perceived credibility of the speaker.

Of course, replicating the experiment helps, too.

[AFK]

Exhibit A:  Cold Fusion

[Cramulus]

they account for that. Replication of an experiment, they say, is a form of confirming and supporting credibility.

but a more concrete application would be when a scientist writes something,
and then another scientist attacks it,
how much weight does that attack have? Only part of it relies on the strength of the argument. If the attacker has low-credibility, nobody's going to "read his posts". If the attacker is respected, people seriously consider what he's saying.

[LMNO]

The scientific e-penis?

[P3nT4gR4m]

Thus why many know of Edison but far fewer know of Tesla.  (okay they're quasi-scientists but it was the best I could come up with at the moment)

No one knows about tesla?

How can this be - most of the cool weapons in FPS's are based on his work goddamnit.

[AFK]

I said "far fewer" not "no one". 

[Payne]

Thus why many know of Edison but far fewer know of Tesla.  (okay they're quasi-scientists but it was the best I could come up with at the moment)

No one knows about tesla?

How can this be - most of the cool weapons in FPS's are based on his work goddamnit.

Not to mention the Tesla towers in C&C:Red Alert when I was a kid.