From Small Pieces Loosely Joined, by the illustrious Mr. Weinberger :
“But the modern concept of knowledge surfaced in Athens, a city of talkers. In the hubbub of voices heard in every market and on every corner, some were saying true things and others were lying, mistaken or fooling themselves … The Greeks needed to decide who to listen to, who was expressing the hidden truth of the situation, for their government was run by the power of speaking … and of listening. …
“Knowing means more than being right. Plato nailed it when he defined knowledge as ‘justified true belief’” (129).
I wasn’t thinking much about Social Constructionism when I was reading Classical Rhetorical Theory, but I am now. Between watching my web-based classes develop and having a professor who’s in the final throes of a dissertation that relies heavily on these theories, I can’t not be thinking about it these days.
“The Web also returns knowledge to its roots in heated arguments in the passageways of Athens. Knowledge isn’t a body of truths stamped with a seal of justification. Knowledge on the Web is a social activity. It is what happens when people say things that matter to them, others reply, and a conversation ensues. Unless the conversation is nothing but a set of insults, each person does the human thing of stating why she thinks she’s right. That’s justification. But the justification may not be canonical” (140).
Obviously, blogging (among other things) is what happens when “people say things that matter to them, others reply, and a conversation ensues.” Blogging can indeed be related to the social structure that fostered Symposium and the sophistic texts. And somebody else thinks so too, which is always reassuring.
I think that social construction is at the core of most of classical rhetoric. Rhetoric was and is a social tool. Language in general is also. So for the Greeks using language in the Demos, the Courts, and in cultural ceremonies, it served as a way for them to construct and maintain their social identity and reality. As for the web, I can also see that connection, although with the introduction of any new technology it takes time for the technology to cease to be seen as an "artifical" part of society and to be seen as "natural." For example, writing is a technology (Walter Ong discusses this), but we see it as something natural to the social fabric of our world. Maybe the web could be compared to the early introduction of literacy into an oral culture. Just some thoughts.
Krista,
I have just stumbled into your weblog very late at night.
I concur with what you saying---weblogging as a form of writing can best be understood in terms of classical rhetoric. To get a handle on rhetoric we have to go back to the classics. Since we do not know them---lost contact with them---we have to sit down and read them.
Its late. I will read the rest of your weblog and research project tomorrow.
Dead right.