Winter in Lefkas

Social constructivism is the learning philosophy that meaning and knowledge (or even more profoundly, cognition) is 'constructed' in the social environment, rather than in any private 'cognition space'. Roughly put, this idea is that thinking belongs in the domain of social interaction; through that interaction with others, we construct the meaning and knowledge that we attribute to the world.

We've had a few days of fine weather in Lefkas, and so we've taken the opportunity to get out of the marina and visit a few local sites. The following photo's are taken from the island going south along the canal that separates Lefkas from the mainland. We rode our bikes down along the canal with Bob and Liz, our British next door (or is that, next passarelle) neighbours.

The end of the canal looking south

Looking north back towards the marina

Bob, Liz and Megan on the canal path

Canal pathway

More of...

So, here's an example of social constructivism in Greece. The religion here is firmly construed in social activities. Religion is bound up and inseparable from all the holiday's, festival days, dunking oranges in the water, flying kites to celebrate Lent, taking the Virgin for a walk and all the other innumerable activities that construe religious observance in Greece. So, in this sense, when people 'think' about religion in Greece, it's an external type of cognition inseparable from the social and cultural activities that dominate life here. We are now in Lent, Carnival has been celebrated and all the festivals, parades and pre-fast consumption is over. We are winding up to Easter, the most significant cultural event in Greece. You can see how all the 'religious cognition' in Greece is completely intertwined with these social observance.

Kite flying celebrants

Kite flying festival in preparation for Lent

We still delight in wandering around the narrow lanes of Lefkas, admiring its unique architecture, and discovering new little shops and curiousities.

Lefkas house

Central square church

Public spaces in Lefkas

So, I was thinking again about this idea of interiority (from a few blogs ago). In that rant, I was wondering about the differences in the 'dimensions of thought' between introverts and extraverts. Perhaps a simpler way to think about this is to imagine a dimension spanning between social constructivism and internalised cognition. Perhaps, for extraverts, their cognition is constructed in 'social and cultural spaces'; while for introverts, cognition is constructed in more internal realms.

External cognition?

Vic, John, Megan and Jill for Vic's 60th birthday

Vic and Christine

Megan and Jill

So, I'll leave you with a few photo's of our 'social constructivism', our celebration of Vic's 60th birthday party. I apologise for blending my psychobabble rants with our tourist narrative, but I'd feel a bit inane just writing a travelogue. Till then.....