If we see knowing not as having an essence, to be described by scientists or philosophers, but rather as a right, by current standards, to believe, then we are well on the way to seeing conversation as the ultimate context within which knowledge is to be understood. Our focus shifts from the relation between human beings and the objects of their inquiry to the relation between alternative standards of justification, and from there to the actual changes in those standards which make up intellectual history.Conflicts such as the ‘War on Terror’ (and the long prelude to them in histories of capitalism, colonialism, empire, and globalization) are not simply veiled productions of greed and selfishness played out on the imagined stage of global American empire – they are deep-seated, existential, and vital to understand. We cannot address them without thinking about our place in the world, our understanding of what it means to give consent to a community and to belong inside of it, and what it is to declare or be declared as an enemy of that community.
- Richard Rorty
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Perspectives and Predispositions
Monday, June 20, 2011
El Dorado and the Botanical Garden, Part III
Manifest Domesticity and the Home in the Frontier
In which I discuss the place of the home and the domestic within the simultaneously foreign and domestic space of the frontier, make a case for the relevance of Eden and ancient religious narratives in 19th and 21st century America, and publish a post while omitting the source-notes because I spent today with my father and worrying about the GRE.
In which I discuss the place of the home and the domestic within the simultaneously foreign and domestic space of the frontier, make a case for the relevance of Eden and ancient religious narratives in 19th and 21st century America, and publish a post while omitting the source-notes because I spent today with my father and worrying about the GRE.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
El Dorado and the Botanical Garden, Part II
‘The Tool Precedes the Garden’
In which I discuss the role of technology and tools -- as physical manifestations and expansions of man's ability to act on, in, and upon the world -- on the frontier and the frontiersman mindset; incorporate David Nye's discussion of technology in the discursive framework of America as an attempt at a human instantiation of Eden on Earth -- as the second act of Creation, following God's original creation; drag Frederick Jackson Turner back into the affair to talk about the corruption of that which has gone into the wild, whether to tame it or not; and discover the existence of the 'blockquote' tag in HTML.
In which I discuss the role of technology and tools -- as physical manifestations and expansions of man's ability to act on, in, and upon the world -- on the frontier and the frontiersman mindset; incorporate David Nye's discussion of technology in the discursive framework of America as an attempt at a human instantiation of Eden on Earth -- as the second act of Creation, following God's original creation; drag Frederick Jackson Turner back into the affair to talk about the corruption of that which has gone into the wild, whether to tame it or not; and discover the existence of the 'blockquote' tag in HTML.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Taming the Suburban Wilderness
Okay, so. If you've read last Sunday's post, it should make perfect sense to you why I think this commercial is worth sharing. If you haven't, I should hope you'll still appreciate it.
Allow me to walk you through the action.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
El Dorado and the Botanical Garden, Part I
Water Lilies, Wilderness, and the Pursuit of Eden in America
In the spring of 1849, England was abuzz with excitement. After a decade of attempts, a seed had survived the journey across the Atlantic, and was successfully germinated, growing into its own in a startlingly rapid seventy-nine days. This flower, already legendary before its arrival, would become an icon of the wonders and potential of European discovery in the New World, a portrait of the beauty of Nature and the splendor of God’s works, and an exemplar of man's ability to mold and wield them to his will. This flower, classified as Victoria regia, in honor of the Queen, stands as an emblem of a grand and important tradition in the Western world.
The British, for a long time, searched in the New World for an El Dorado1, for a specific place, Eden-like, that could be found and colonized. Eventually, they abandoned the search for a physical, preexisting Garden — for there was, in fact, no such place. This transition, though, was by no means instant. It was, rather, a process of realization, stretching even into the 18th and 19th centuries, wherein the idea slowly came to people that there would be no discovery of Eden, no El Dorado. It would become the task of man to instantiate this Paradise, to create it on the earthly plane as it had existed before the expulsion, and perhaps, even, to improve upon it. Until that realization had fully dawned, though, Europeans — the British, especially — continued their quest, adding into it early impulses towards creation and simulation as opposed to discovery.
In the spring of 1849, England was abuzz with excitement. After a decade of attempts, a seed had survived the journey across the Atlantic, and was successfully germinated, growing into its own in a startlingly rapid seventy-nine days. This flower, already legendary before its arrival, would become an icon of the wonders and potential of European discovery in the New World, a portrait of the beauty of Nature and the splendor of God’s works, and an exemplar of man's ability to mold and wield them to his will. This flower, classified as Victoria regia, in honor of the Queen, stands as an emblem of a grand and important tradition in the Western world.
The British, for a long time, searched in the New World for an El Dorado1, for a specific place, Eden-like, that could be found and colonized. Eventually, they abandoned the search for a physical, preexisting Garden — for there was, in fact, no such place. This transition, though, was by no means instant. It was, rather, a process of realization, stretching even into the 18th and 19th centuries, wherein the idea slowly came to people that there would be no discovery of Eden, no El Dorado. It would become the task of man to instantiate this Paradise, to create it on the earthly plane as it had existed before the expulsion, and perhaps, even, to improve upon it. Until that realization had fully dawned, though, Europeans — the British, especially — continued their quest, adding into it early impulses towards creation and simulation as opposed to discovery.
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