“Discourse about a subject requires distance or 'objectivity' as well as proximity: the known has to be set off somehow from the knower.”
About This Quote
Knowledge requires being close to a subject matter, but also being far from a subject matter, the ability to see it from many different angles.
More from Walter Ong
“Written words are residue. Oral tradition has no such residue or deposit… Though words are…”
“It is perfectly true that neither you nor I can hope to set up a program for activity…”
“The articulate remains always embedded in the inarticulate.”
“Science itself is always incomplete articulation.”