This study attempts to analyse some of the conceptual problems of learning. It has been argued that learning is not a psychological process, nor an achievement in its major uses in ordinary contexts. Learning can be viewed as a significant form of human activity carried out more or less consciously and deliberately. / That learning is an activity could be shown in two different ways. First, in its major "modal" uses of the term 'learn'--'learn how to', 'learn that', etc.--it is used almost always with an implication of the completion of relevant activities or actions. It is not like typical epistemological terms such as 'know' and 'believe', which express states rather than activities. It also is not like typical achievement terms such as 'realize' and 'recognize'. Its use, except for a few cases, normally indicates that certain activities have occurred and have come to their completing points, the logical ending points. Thus a learning claim remains incomplete if the relevant activities or actions were merely stopped or interrupted. / Another way to support the activity view of learning is to set a contrast between two different aspects of human learning--"embedded" and "non-embedded" learning. When human beings acquire language, they also acquire a certain picture of the world. But human beings do not explicitly learn the world picture; its learning is embedded in their everyday actions and, most significantly, in their use of language. Furthermore, this "embedded" learning sets the background for further "non-embedded" learning. It sets the background for doubting, reasoning, and other significant form of inquiry. / Concerning the dilemma of inquiry in the Meno, it has been argued that the notion of embedded learning can be crucial for both the formulation of the dilemma and for the solution to it--what Socrates calls "prior knowledge" is what human beings learned "embeddedly". As a conclusion, it is argued that the significance of human learning as a full blown form of activity can be better understood against the background of embedded learning, the learning of language games in Wittgenstein's phrase. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-04, Section: A, page: 1067. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1984.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75297 |
| Contributors | KIM, AHN-JOONG., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 109 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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