Ethics and Second-Order Cybernetics - Understanding Understanding: Essays on Cybernetics and Cognition - page 295

“But this cannot be,” I argued from an Aristotelian platform, “Only one
of them can have the truth!”
“The problem is not truth,” he answered, “The problem is trust.”
I understood. The problem is understanding. The problem is under-
standing understanding! The problem is making decisions upon in principle
undecidable questions.
At that point Metaphysics appeared and asked her younger sister Ethics,
“What would you recommend I bring back to my proteges, the metaphysi-
cians, regardless of whether or not they refer to themselves as such?” Ethics
answered, “Tell them they should always try to act so as to increase the
number of choices. Yes, increase the number of choices!”
Dialogics
Now I would like to turn to Ethics' sister, Dialogics. What are the means
at her disposal to insure that Ethics can manifest herself without becoming
explicit? You may already have guessed that it is, of course, language. I am
not referring here in the sense of the noises produced by pushing air past
our vocal cords; or language in the sense of grammar, syntax, semantics,
semiotics; nor the machinery of phrases, verb phrases, noun phrases, deep
structure, etc. When I refer here to language, I refer to language the
“dance.” Similar to when we say “It takes two to Tango,” I am saying, “It
takes two to language.”
When it comes to the dance of language, you the family therapists are of
course the masters, while I can only speak as an amateur. Since “amateur”
comes from “amour,” you'll know at once that I love to dance this dance.
In fact, what little I know of this dance I learned from you. My first lesson
came when I was invited to sit in an observation room and observe through
the one way mirror a therapeutic session in progress with a family of four.
For a moment my colleagues had to leave, and I was by myself. I was curious
as to what I would see when I couldn't hear what was said, so I turned off
the sound.
I recommend that you perform this experiment yourself. Perhaps you will
be as fascinated as I was. What I saw then, the silent pantomime, the parting
and closing of lips, the body movements, the boy who only once stopped
biting his nails...what I saw then were the dance steps of language, the
dance steps alone, without the disturbing effects of the music. Later I heard
from the therapist that this session was very successful indeed. I thought,
what magic must sit in the noises these people produced by pushing air past
their vocal cords and by parting and closing their lips. Therapy! What magic
indeed! And to think that the only medicine at your disposal are the dance
steps of language and its accompanying music. Language! What magic
indeed!