Friday 13 March 2020

Context of Context

What is context, and how relevant is it?

My best generalized description of context, might be; an outline of parameters which are relevant to a concept.
Oxfords definition; the circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood and assessed.

It seems that context mainly applies to concepts of something occurring, rather than an object or factor, since circumstances are involved which are relevant to an action. By concept, I mean basically any action where an effect is caused. This could be a specific physical occurrence, or it could be a generalized concept, which describes a common effect being caused by varying factors. Some form of cause and effect seems to always be involved in context, since context seems to describe extra elements which have an influencing effect. 

Circumstances which have an effect on the concept, seem fundamental for context, since if the circumstances did not affect it, there would be no point to include or specify those factors of circumstances. If no context is specified, then that means there are unknown factors which influence the concept. If there are unknown factors, this means the information about the concept is less accurate, and less useful for applying the concept or predicting an outcome. With incomplete context comes more room for error, from guessing incorrectly what the resulting effect of the concept will be. 

If something is “taken out of context”, this usually means a concept has been applied to circumstances which are incorrect. Factors of circumstances which influence the concept, have been applied, which do not directly cause the insinuated result of the context.

Complete context would be an outline of every factor which affects a concept in any way. Hypothetically, with complete context, a prediction can be made with 100% accuracy. If every fine detail which has any minor influence on the cause of an effect, is known, then the outcome can be calculated completely accurately. A concept within complete context seems to be the only way that a result can be predicted with 100% accuracy. 

This seems to be different from an individual being 100% certain, since someone can never be 100% certain of the context itself. This is because context is only known by someone through their interpretation, which is through sensory perception and memory access, which is not 100% accurate, as I further explained in my 2nd last post; Interpretation of Interpretation. Since context is not 100% certain, that means accuracy is not 100% certain. So it seems that 100% accuracy with complete context, hypothetically exists, yet nobody can be 100% certain of that accuracy. This is relatable to the concept of facts, which I questioned in a post from 1 week ago; Proven Fact. Facts are hypothetically 100% true, but nobody can be 100% certain that something is indeed a fact. 

Context seems to be quite relevant, since it increases accuracy of the result of a concept. The less that context is specified, the less details of factors which influence the result, are known. With less influencing elements known, comes more room for error. Complete context can allow 100% accuracy, but since context cant be 100% certain, this is only hypothetical, just like the; Context of Context.

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