The Latest Theory Is That Theory Doesn't Matter [BWAHAHA Alert!]

NY Times ^ | 4-19-03 | EMILY EAKIN

[TexanToTheCore]

Well. you're right. Lit theory doesn't equal scientific theory at all. It is simply a viewpoint from which massive tomes can be spun, all based upon a viewpoint that is simply out of touch with reality. If I remember correctly, "theory" was a response to increasing sophistication of science in the early twentieth century. The Lit depts wished with all their heart to make lit criticism as relevant as soundly based scientific theory. One of the first examples was (bear with me here, I'm remembering a long time ago) the use of a scientific theorem that stated that if you viewed a a physical process you changed the process by doing so.(Later found to be incorrect)

Eventually, this changed into situational ethics and post modernism, as Derrida stated that the ethics of an action were only to be defined by the effect on the person affected by the action (the Other). That's a really rough guide, as it does not include the goofiness of Foucault and others whose works and theories are simply laughable.

These people normally write for very small audiences, many of those audiences are 300 people or so and their thoughts have been justifiably disregarded by the mainstream, due to the fact that they simply out of touch with the real world.

It is a real mystery as to why this discussion should occur at this juncture. Perhaps these intellectuals have finally realized that action changes the world, not theory and that their generations of musings have been an empty exercise. A real mystery.

[AmishDude]

A dean was complaining to the physics department chair about all the equipment their research required. He said, "Why can't you be more like mathematics department? All they need is pencils, paper and a wastebasket. Or the philosophy department? They don't even need the wastebaskets."

[TexanToTheCore]

"from the bowels of truth doth spring humor"....Me One of the sillier exercises that has been done is to deconstruct the Revolution of 1776. A few years ago I was looking at the Stamp Act of (I think) 1764 and I couldn't figure out why so many people became enraged at this small tax on paper that was sent to the colonies. It has always been presented as a wide politically driven rebellion, but it was no such thing. Why would a people who had a functional literacy rate of at most 20% become so angry at this new tax from England? Why wouldn't just the literati was wroth?

The anser turned out to be quite easy. Paper was commonly used as wadding in guns, whether pistol, musket or rifle and the intent was not to tax broadsheets papers and writers of belles lettres, but to tax the common man for his shooting.

I don't know why historians have missed this link, but if you are familiar with the history of black powder shooting ( for which most historians have no interest at all, it would be un-PC), it is painfully obvious that this tax would have affected everyone, from the cities to the frontier.

We need a new set of historians, who are familiar with the tools of Colonial America, a new group that will acquaint themselves with the implements and methods of our forebearers. The current crop is miserable.

[TexanToTheCore]

Since I am on a soapbox, I might as well as continue.

Much of the day-to-day history that we know to be true is held in the hands of amateur historians, re-enactors who build, buy and use the implements of our ancestors. It would be well if some of these panty-waste historians got out into the field and spent a good deal of time in tents and log cabins at rendezvous's and other festivals living with re-enactors, cooking over an open fire, using a knife and bone needle to sew deerskins. They would learn much that would be helpful in their profession.

But they won't, as they are too sophisticated.

[gore3000]

Hummmmm. . .well, now, is evolution a right wing theory or a left wing theory?

Left-wing. There is no such thing as a conservative theory. There are conservative writers, sure, but conservatism is not a theory at all. It is more a set of principles, a view of life, of humanity. I think an essential of conservatism is a Christian perspective, a belief that there is both good and evil in the world and that it will always be such. There is no utopianism in conservatism and all theories tend to be utopian to some extent.

[BADROTOFINGER]

"We want to be the Starship Enterprise of criticism and theory," he told the audience.

With phasers permanently set to 'stun'...JFK

[gore3000]

Why would a people who had a functional literacy rate of at most 20% become so angry at this new tax from England?

I must disagree with the above. The American Colonists were very literate. The US was perhaps the most literate country in the world at the time of the revolution. In a country of just a few million Paine's booklet sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Your other point may be true also however. The stamp tax also taxed legal documents of which all had a need for.

[BADROTOFINGER]

And one could hardly call Allan Bloom a conservative...JFK

[Anamensis]

If I remember correctly, "theory" was a response to increasing sophistication of science in the early twentieth century. The Lit depts wished with all their heart to make lit criticism as relevant as soundly based scientific theory.

In grad school we called it "physics envy."

[Anamensis]

"....Or the philosophy department? They don't even need the wastebaskets."

The philosophy department IS the wastebasket of academia.

[Vision Thing]

And one could hardly call Allan Bloom a conservative...JFK

You are correct, sir. I don't consider any of the people in the list to be conservative, most especially Bloom.

I suggest you read my post more carefully. I only say they supported conservatives. Such support does not make them conservative.

To be fair, I guess one can better characterize them as successful detractors of the Left. Where that leaves them on the political spectrum, I leave that to your own imagination.

[BADROTOFINGER]

I didnt mean that you were wrong or anything, simply that support from a man like Bloom mightily reinforces the conservative position. It seems we are winning the battles more frequently in the war of ideals, and endorsements from people like Bloom are adding great momentum, especially among the undecided and open-minded...JFK

[William Terrell]

I agree. There's lots of people on FR that argue in favor of evolution. They think they're conservatives. It hit me a little while ago when debating about women in combat that the one who argue on the side of using women as combat soldiers are liberals, by definition. Then it occured to me that you could say that about evolutionists, too.

[MissAmericanPie]

"So Sander L. Gilman, a professor of liberal arts and sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, replied instead. "I would make the argument that most criticism — and I would include Noam Chomsky in this — is a poison pill," he said. "I think one must be careful in assuming that intellectuals have some kind of insight. In fact, if the track record of intellectuals is any indication, not only have intellectuals been wrong almost all of the time, but they have been wrong in corrosive and destructive ways."

Did you ever think you would hear them admit this? Poison pills is a very apt description.

[TexanToTheCore]

I will check on the numbers but I think the numbers are about right. 20% would make us one of the most literate countries on earth at that time.

The first wave of immigrants (1600s) were quite literate, being made up of middle and upper class families but succeeding waves were not.

[Kazuki]

'Theory' in the hands of the scientists in biology, chemistry, physics and the other natural sciences is something very different altogether.

Isn't the "Theory of Evolution" a natural science theory? How helpful or provenly accurate is that? < /flame starter >

[TexanToTheCore]

I did some looking around and was very surprised to find that there are many references to European travelers and documentarians of the American Scene who traveled the colonies in the middle to late 1700s and sho spoke of the amazing degree of literacy in this country.

The primary instruction was in the home, this being an important part of a motter's duties and the child was put into a private school later, frequently a school directly funded and maintained by a church.

One source states that only 4 of 1000 colonialists were iliterate, a rate of literacy that is far higher than we have today.

Thanks for the correction.