00:04, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
Communication, Meanings and Intentions
Humans develop mutually shared meanings, however imperfectly, by continued symbolic interactions among each other.
A child may learn to expect specific reactions from a parent, in the face of that child's interactions with the parent, or with that child's interactions with the outside world.
From this, we derive explanation of mutual motivations between parent and child; also from this, the child can begin to understand how other children might be expected to react.
Parents from similar cultures and similar social systems will usually rear children with similar expectations from their respective parents. And, those children may reciprocally entertain their own expectations of their parents.
A child at leisure might watch a parent at work (in the Real World). A telephone conversation transpires. The parent has an emotional reaction from the phone conversation. The child wishes to participate (but only in play, not in the Real World). The parent might give the child a toy phone which the child might use to imitate the parent and the emotion is replicated without meaning (this is play). Eventually, a child will learn just what the parent was doing on the telephone -- and the meaning of the interaction by the parent and the Real World. But in the Real World, that parent may have just completed a drug deal and some money is forthcoming. For that parent, the drugs or money count; but in the Real World, that parent has just invited Consequences. If the child were to have a parent who instead has just finished a legally acceptable agreement, then the child may gain the impression that the appropriate behavior of the parent is acceptable conduct. Just as a child learns from the parent, so too, the parent learns from the Real World. A successful interaction between parent and Real world is a meaning which can be triumphantly communicated to the child.
The child might imagine these related meanings and act out related actions at play, and eventually at work. If the child learns that an action will produce a desired result, that child will continue practicing that action, with greater and greater skill. The set of skills, actions, and expected rewards will motivate that child to continue those actions.
From this, the child develops an understanding which is unique and particular. This creates a gulf between child and parent, and between persons in general. Thus we are faced with the problem of communicating meanings. Consequences in the Real World are visible to all, but the attendant meanings and related motivations are either desired or unwanted for each person. Each person acts in one's own behalf.
Perfect communication is complete understanding of the desired result on both sides. Balancing that communication requires a mutual acceptance of each other's intentions. Acceptance of a role is part of a social contract.
Thus at every level, from parent to child, from the family to the community, from the community to the business, from the society to the nation, and among the nations, there is symbolic interaction. Communications between the parties are based on their mutual acceptance of their reciprocal intentions and meanings.
05:03, 16 July 2006 (UTC)