[OSList] : Speech acts

Harold Shinsato harold at shinsato.com
Sat Oct 26 08:11:04 PDT 2013 

In the U.S. the Ad Council is a private non-profit organization that 
puts advertisements promoting the public good.

When I was in college, a somewhat subversive student newspaper printed a 
fake Ad Council advertisement - along with stealing the ad council logo. 
(Tsk tsk.)

    186,000 Miles Per Second
    It's not only a good idea, it's the law.

I've heard it said that the only reason we as human beings attain 
mastery over Nature is by being obedient to Her laws. Take it as a 
metaphor, but specifically describing the ways things already are 
working and inviting people to play in the field of that awareness 
changes what's possible. Just as "obedience" to the Speed of Light has 
enabled us to ascend to higher planes in our understanding of the Universe.

     Harold

On 10/26/13 8:02 AM, Linda Stevenson wrote:
> Hi, Dan,
>
> "Be prepared to be surprised" along with the OST "principles" is 
> *descriptive *of what participants might notice in Open Space.  You 
> could think of it as a "heads up" or a reminder that nobody knows 
> specifically what is going to go up on the wall (nor what specific 
> outcomes and next steps will emerge).  General outcomes, yes, like 
> emergent visions, creative collaboration, genuine community, serious 
> learning and play, etc. but not specific ones, hence the element of 
> surprise.
>
> In twenty years of facilitating Open Space I have never seen any one 
> interpret it as a directive, just a reminder which not only applies to 
> OST but also to life itself.
>
> All the best,
> Linda
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 09:17:38 -0400
> From: dan at newtechusa.net
> To: oslist at lists.openspacetech.org
> 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> and the 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> introduced by the 
> philosopher 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>.
>
> 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:
>
>     Re: [OSList] The OST Game 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>
>
>     *The Copenhagen Interpretation
>     *www.thecopenhageninterpretation.co.uk
>     <http://www.thecopenhageninterpretation.co.uk>
>
>
>
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> -- 
>
> Daniel Mezick, President
>
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>
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-- 
Harold Shinsato
harold at shinsato.com <mailto:harold at shinsato.com>
http://shinsato.com
twitter: @hajush <http://twitter.com/hajush>
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