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Anti-scholarship

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Against many of our habits of thought, our world is dominated by the extreme, ... The overvaluation of factual information to guide properly unlearned learned ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Anti-scholarship


1
Anti-scholarship
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  • 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.

3
Consider the following, with respect to a 2-D
rendition of the Klein-bottle
4
In other words, we tune in on the containing
and the contained
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The 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.

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  • 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.

13
The 'fringe', where everything is what it isn't
and it is neither what it is nor what it isn't
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But the 'fringe' is usually ignored. This creates
the conundrum of unknowing knowing. Which
includes
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  • 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

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  • 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.

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  • 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.
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