Conversation Theory regards social systems as symbolic, language-oriented systems where responses depend on one person's interpretation of another person's behavior, and where meanings are agreed through conversations. But since meanings are agreed, and the agreements can be illusory and transient, scientific research requires stable reference points in human transactions to allow for reproducible results. Pask found these points to be the understandings which arise in the conversations between two participating individuals, and which he defined rigorously. Conversation Theory describes interaction between two or more cognitive systems, such as a teacher and a student or distinct perspectives within one individual, and how they engage in a dialog over a given concept and identify differences in how they understand it.
Pask, Gordon (1996). "Heinz von Foerster's Self-Organisation, the Progenitor of Conversation and Interaction Theories." Systems Research, 13(3): 349–362. [^]
Pask, Gordon (1993). Interactions of Actors (IA), Theory and Some Applications.
Swanson, Don R. (1986). "Fish oil, Raynaud's Syndrome, and Undiscovered Public Knowledge." Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 30 (1): 7-18. [^]
Simon, Herbert (1977). Models of Discovery: And Other Topics in the Methods of Science. Springer [^]
Wilson, Patrick (1977). Public Knowledge, Private Ignorance: Toward a Library and Information Policy. Greenwood Publishing Group. [^]
Kochen, Manfred, ed. (1975). Information for Action: from Knowledge to Wisdom. New York: Academic Press. [^]
Pask, Gordon (1976). Conversation Theory, Applications in Education and Epistemology. Elsevier.
The shade of the bar looks invariant in isolation but variant in context, in (favor of) sharp contrast with the color gradient background, hence an innateillusion we have to reasonably interpret and overcome as well as the mirage. Such variance appearing seasonably from context to context may not only be the case with our vision but worldview in general in practice indeed, whether a priori or a posteriori. Perhaps no worldview from nowhere, without any point of view or prejudice at all!
Ogden & Richards (1923) said, "All experience ... is either enjoyed or interpreted ... or both, and very little of it escapes some degree of interpretation."
H. G. Wells (1938) said, "The human individual is born now to live in a society for which his fundamental instincts are altogether inadequate."