Knowledge And Decisions

The apparent sophistication of this approach can be scrutinized with a physical example, in order to avoid the distractions of ideological presuppositions. Eyesight is, in some sense “constructed,” because it is not merely a matter of light entering the eye and travelling to the optic nerve. From these light patterns the brain must construct a world and project it outward as something that we see. For example, it is not these light patterns themselves but our presuppositions about perspective which enable us to decide that the chair next to us, which looms much larger in our field of vision than the automobile across the street, is nevertheless not as big as the automobile. We know that dogs do not see the same world we do because they are color-blind and that other creatures with different kinds of eyes, and creatures with sonarlike perception systems, such as bats, must construct their picture of the world from different raw materials of the senses. But does any of this mean that what we see is merely a set of conventions, no more valid than an abstract painting or a vision to be conjured up by the words of articulate writers or orators, or by psychedelic drugs?

Would anyone walk into a lion's cage because both the lion and the cage, as we see them, are ultimately things constructed in our brains? More important, why not? Only because the verification processes so deftly made to disappear in theory could become very quickly, very brutally, and very agonizingly apparent. That is also the very reason why dogs do not run into a roaring flame and why bats swerve to avoid colliding with a stone wall. All these differently constructed worlds are subjected to verification processes. All these creatures’ worlds, like our own, are indeed “perceptions” but they are not just perceptions. The position of the observer is indeed an integral part of the data, but it is not the only part of the data.

The whole approach of Knowledge and Decisions is the antithesis of that of deconstructionism, for here the prevailing theme is that there is an independent reality which each individual perceives only imperfectly, but which can be understood more fully with feedback that can validate or invalidate what was initially believed. This is applied not only to physical reality but also to social realities, whose many ramifications may not all be understood by any given individual, but whose feedback nevertheless forces the decision maker to change course in spite of whatever predilections that decision maker may have. To take a trivial and non-controversial example, the initial decision of the Coca- Cola company to change the flavor of their drink to what they thought the public would prefer was rescinded with embarrassing haste when the market response belied the company’s expectations. Stock markets are likewise an ongoing economic referendum on what goods and services people do and don't want, often disappointing — and punishing — those who guessed wrong, even with the best professional advice available.

Given the crucial importance of feedback in using knowledge to make decisions, the transfer of decisions from one kind of institution to another raises serious and even grave questions as to which institution is inherently more open to feedback and which more thoroughly insulated from it. The nature of the feedback process is also important: Is it mere articulation, in which some may have great talents without a corresponding depth of understanding, and in which others may choose to listen to or ignore, or is it inarticulate but powerful mechanisms ranging from money to love?