Illusions, Lies -- what construction would we evoke if we used these terms?
Somehow, all of our education in the tradition of our eduction --
Anglo-Saxon dominated, search for truth, scientific method, etc. -- lead us to
think of illusions as "untrue." Would we be better off if we took a position
that ILLUSION refers to the use of a set of constructs in a situation in which
those constructs are inapplicable. Consider, for example, the phi-phenomenon.
We use the construct STATIC-MOVING in a situation in whic that construct is not
useful.
The issue would be to explain the basis of the use of that construct in
that situation. While we might be tempted to think of the use of that
construct as a "mistake," we have no reason to see its use as being any
different from the use of a set of constructs in any other situation in which
we use the constructs that will most readily anticipate events.
Lies??? Should we think of lies as the reporting of the use of a set
of constructs which we had not used in the particular situation about which we
are reporting?
What makes a "lie" problematic? We have no way to "prove" that the
person did or did not use the construtions he reports that he had used!!! Our
best test, then, is to be able to find that the person contradicts his/her
self. That is, in one situation he/she reports that he used one set of
constuctes, and in another he/she reports that he/she used another set of
constructs. We cannot "prove" that a person has "lied" by taking another
person's testimony, can we? Person A reports that he construed the situation in
one way, and person B reports that he construed it in another way. Who is
"lying?"
Could you suggest other ways of construing the situations in which the
terms ILLUSION and LIES are used???
Jim Mancuso
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