Title: Anti-scholarship
1Anti-scholarship
2- Against many of our habits of thought, our world
is dominated by the extreme, the unknown, and the
very improbable (improbable according to our
current knowledge)and all the while we spend our
time engaged in small talk, focusing on the
known, and the repeated and repeatable.
3Consider the following, with respect to a 2-D
rendition of the Klein-bottle
4In other words, we tune in on the containing
and the contained
5The uncontained is a vast ocean of Chaos, OF
UNKNOWING, and the containing and contained are
minuscule islands, OF KNOWING
6- This implies the need to use the extreme, the
unorthodox, the strange, the bizarre, event as a
starting point and not treat it as an exception
to be pushed under the rug.
7- In spite of our progress and the growth of
knowledge, or perhaps because of such progress
and growth, the future will be increasingly less
predictable, while both human nature and social
science seem to conspire to hide the idea from
us.
8- Students and colleagues enter my humble office,
and remark What a library you have! How many
of these books have you read?
9- We tend to treat our knowledge as personal
property to be protected and defended. It is an
ornament that allows us to rise in the pecking
order. Thus we have the largest library our
financial means will allow, and thus also, the
portion of the books in our library weve read is
usually roughly inversely proportional to our
financial means.
10- But Assuming youve read all your books, the
library should be an indicator of what you dont
know, more than of what you know.
11- But in this case, youre an anti-scholar, since
whatever your paltry knowing may be, you consider
it neither your possession nor your treasure.
Youre on the margin, a fringer, an outlier,
rather than a conventional scholar.
12- And where is this fringe at its best?
Metaphorically speaking, at the hole in the
Klein-bottle, where the containing containing the
contained allows the uncontained to pour in.
That is where the action is at.
13The 'fringe', where everything is what it isn't
and it is neither what it is nor what it isn't
14But the 'fringe' is usually ignored. This creates
the conundrum of unknowing knowing. Which
includes
15- 1. The illusion (presumption) of understanding
(or how everyone thinks s/he knows). - This can be qualified as the PRESENT, included
within Peirces category FIRSTNESS
16- 2. The retrospective construction, or how we
assess matters after the fact, as if they were a
rearview mirror. - This can be qualified as the PAST, included
within Peirces SECONDNESS.
17- 3. The overvaluation of factual information to
guide properly unlearned learned people,
especially when they construct general categories
with which to organize the world. - This can be qualified as the FUTURE, included
within THIRDNESS.