Return-Path: sendmail 5.67/UCSD-2.2-sun Wed, 10 Feb 93 14:38:05 -0800 for /usr/lib/sendmail -oc -odq -oQ/var/spool/lqueue -oi -fsocgrad-relay socgrad-list Date: Wed, 10 Feb 93 15:29:42 EST From: Gregory_Nagy@MTS.cc.Wayne.edu To: socgrad@ucsd.edu Subject: SOCGRAD The Transmission and Sharing of Knowledge I think that this electronic discussion list is great. If we as a discipline are to be taken seriously, and if our ideas are to be heard, we cannot sit back and ignore the opportunities that this national (and international?) discussion list can offer. While it is a social fact that the commodification of ideas generally limits the extent to which we are willing to share our insights and innovations; we ought to nevertheless seek out others with common interests and goals in order to improve the discipline in general, and the particular perspectives to which we wish to contribute. We do not necessarily have to all concur with each other in order to strengthen our discipline. At times, we may not even realize concurrence or non-concurrence. In fact, homogeneity and heterogeneity in social relations is often obscured by the participants relative cognizance of their own relationships to other external group patterns of thought. That is, what we may perceive as conflicting heterogeneity may actually be homogeneous in contrast to another group perspective. Hopefully, through thoughtful communication we will develop and discover novel points of view. The point here is simply this: we ought to encourage "off the wall" sociological statements, analyze same with a sociological open mindedness, and provide positive feedback. We have at our very fingertips, access to an incredible potential resource. Thus, it is possible that whole new schools of thought could be generated via this electronic medium! Stranger things have happened!! Greg Nagy Wayne State University