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CSGnet Archive CSG1993
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[From Dag Forssell (930830 16.30)] Michael Fehling 930830 12:42

(BTW, if you think that the information that I've requested would
bore the "regular (sic) contributors to this list", as one message
put it, then email me privately.)

Rick, don't you dare to start direct posts on this.

Michael, I am not worried. Rick knows better. This net is for those
who want to learn and understand PCT. It is for precisely this kind
of interaction. We have infinite patience with those who have a
sincere desire to understand. In fact, some of the best posts have
been inspired as a result of seemingly ridiculous questions,
sincerely asked. We all learn from this. (H)PCT has been explained
over and over, each time with a different twist.

We have had drawn out shouting matches with some people who
ultimately left the net, and some with people who have come around
and become champions. The newcomer's desire to learn as manifested
by actual discussion of the PCT issues is key. We do appreciate
people who read the existing literature, before they make
assertions about what PCT can and cannot say about this or that.

The care package I have promised you will hit the post office
tomorrow, now that the article I have worked on is finalized.
I'll include several of my own promotional efforts.

I will be sorely disappointed if you start sending private posts.
This is not a private argument, but a learning process with many
listeners. A complete historical record is collected by our
historian Greg Williams, supplemented by a few others (me) for
redundancy.

Glad to have you on CSG-L!

Best, Dag

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[Michael Fehling 930830 5:37 PM]

In re Dag Forssell (930830 16.30 --

I offered to get some info from Rick privately _only_ because (a) I feared it
might be too remedial to interest most CSG-L participants, and (b) because my
exchanges have been monopolizing so much net time of late. However, please be
assured that I am quite comfortable honoring the policy of discussing PCT
publicly if that policy is to be adhered to in an unqualified way.

  I hope most of you can see that I and my students are quite sincere in
respectfully exploring approaches such as PCT. We've got a lot of conceptual
investment in our own type of theorizing; however, we're willing and able to
search for complementarities in other work, and even replacements for our own
ideas if these new found notions show themselves to be superior. Frankly,
I've done more of this kind of open exploration than most researchers I've
known. It is what has led my group to the very productive position we are now
in. It is also what leads me to sympathize with, and perhaps understand,
PCT's unfortunate experience as a very powerful body of ideas that have been
summarily rejected by mainstream reactionaries.

- michael -