Dear ToK Colleagues:
A brief story first. We were a vibrant, diverse group of graduate students at the University of Virginia back in the 1980s. We played football late Friday afternoons and then frequented one of several eateries and pubs on The Corner for an evening of music and intellectual discussions. We debated and, at times, harassed each other. Those of us who were committed to “science” and our humanities colleagues had many debates about the nature of our scholarship. We were criticized, usually playfully, of being “narrow-minded positivists” who were seeking “control” and “hegemony” with our work (no matter how “open-minded” we thought we were in discussing philosophy and epistemology). In turn, we teased our humanities colleagues about their upcoming doctoral defenses with questions like, “Why worry? After all, you can never really be wrong, can you? It’s all a matter of interpretation.” And this was at least a decade before the Sokol hoax.
In time, we all learned from each other and grew in our understanding of the variegated nature of truth systems and epistemological frameworks. I’ll only speak for myself here, though, by suggesting that I came to fully embrace the “many ways of knowing” philosophy, which, I should mention in the interest of full disclosure, extends beyond science. The important point I would make about the various truth systems and narratives, though, would be that the credibility of arguments, evidence, and methodology should correspond with appropriate evaluation methods of competing claims. Within each field or discipline, there are indeed standards of excellence – and that’s presumably why we have everything from peer-reviewed journals to exams for degrees and professional accreditation. When the latest trio of academicians pulled off their coup as “grievance scholars” in getting a half dozen or more articles published in peer-reviewed journals in a year’s time, then that tells me that there are some real problems or weaknesses in the extant standards and/or review process associated with those journals. And, I suspect, there will always be more “problems” or challenges with humanities-based journals because of the nature of the work and what constitutes credible evidence (see above). If these scholars, however, were able to pull off the same feat and get published in the top sociology journals (e.g., American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology or Sociological Theory), then I’d be even more worried about sociology as a discipline – and I’d be the first to turn the critical lens on what the heck they are doing with those journals. Ditto for the top psychology or physics journals.
That said, the new wave of young scholars entering academia are, as a whole, brilliant. We’ve hired about two dozen new PhDs in our university across about a dozen departments in the humanities and social sciences, as well as business and social work in the last few years. We are hardly a top-tier university, but almost every single one of them is outstanding and already reasonably accomplished in their young careers. I can only imagine what the top universities must be attracting. In fact, compared to “the old folks” in our university – and I’m clearly one of them – the new generation is better prepared, more ambitious, and far more open (and collegial) to everything from cutting-edge ideas within their fields to a willingness to tackle issues both pedagogically and in their research from cross- or inter-disciplinary perspectives. I’ve never been more optimistic about the potential for innovative research and intellectual breakthroughs than I am now, as I’ve seen our university move through such an exciting transition with so many energetic, thoughtful, and engaging young scholars.
And that’s where I will end by having to disagree with Mark’s commentary. I have been patient with the standard disciplinary ad hominem attacks about the social sciences, in part because there’s a kernel of truth in the critique. Plus, Mark, I actually get a kick out of some of your commentary, as I can certainly laugh at myself (plus, are you the intelligent "Forrest Gump" of the intellectual world, showing up at just the right historical moments with every important development and thinker of the past half century?)!
Most important, technology clearly does have an important role to play in studying changes in human – and other – forms of behavior. We have clear evidence of massive changes in everything from daily patterns of social interaction (e.g., Marlowe et al. 2017), to mental health and psychological well-being (e.g., Shensa et al. 2016), to the impact on brain development (e.g., Crone and Konijn). Mark and Jeff are entirely correct in recognizing the importance of the digital revolution, which a great many of us have been arguing represents the defining revolution at least as important (I think even moreso) as the “industrial revolution” or the printing press. And Mark’s certainly right in suggesting too that we “don’t have to remember anything anymore.” All of these ideas and impacts must be incorporated into our thinking and theorizing, in my view, if we are to develop more comprehensive explanations of “where we are” and “where we are going.” The digital revolution, like the industrial revolution, encapsulates a vast array of social, economic, political, and even spiritual changes, however, which leads me to my final point.
I would caution that monocausal theories never hold up well in the social sciences, as the history of social science has demonstrated repeatedly. Technology’s one important factor, but by no means the only or even the most important factor (and, no, that’s not the only argument Mark’s making). Hence Mark’s statement that the social sciences lack a proper understanding of causality is not only unhelpful, but simply “wrong.” He writes: “No current social science can provide that understanding (of causality). That is why they all need to be replaced. Every single one of them. Without a thorough understanding of how technology *formally* causes us to behave as we do -- which, in turn, requires an understanding of Aristotle's Causes (not Plato's Forms) -- the headlines will continue to baffle (and, for some, bemuse) . . . !!” Apart from the sheer hubris and arrogance of such statements, they are factually incorrect and philosophically dubious, at best. I know of literally hundreds of outstanding social scientists and philosophers whose work clearly contradicts such statements. I don’t have time to debate these issues further, however, as I’m busy: a) attempting to do the best social scientific work possible (i.e., developing explanatory theories of human social behaviors that correspond most closely with current and future evidence) and building a healthy, vibrant, engaged university (which I’ve been told offline is basically impossible and “part of the problem”). All that said, I take to heart the criticisms of what we in the academy are doing. I will not engage in a further defense of the academy, however, but merely suggest that I and many others I work with here consistently embrace technological, administrative, pedagogical, and intellectual changes that aim to improve what we are doing. It’s a never-ending process. The reason for my optimism, however, reflects my earlier observations about the innovative, open-minded, and brilliant young people we’ve been attracting to the academy in recent years. Thus the culture wars will continue for many important reasons we can continue to discuss, but I see what we’re doing with the ToK and with the university system in general as “part of the solution.”
Yours kindly, Joe
P.S. - Do people really focus more on the "P.S." attached to messages?
Dr. Joseph H. Michalski
Associate Academic Dean
King’s University College at Western University
266 Epworth Avenue
London, Ontario, Canada N6A 2M3
Tel: (519) 433-3491
Fax: (519) 963-1263
Email: [log in to unmask]
______________________
eið + 1 = 0
________________________________
From: tree of knowledge system discussion <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, October 5, 2018 7:12 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Our divided country
Hi List,
As I am sure you saw, Trump mocked Dr. Ford in his speech the other night, to the applause of the crowd.
Today, there is the following article about academic hoaxers who are following in the footsteps of Alan Sokal<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_Sokal-5Faffair&d=DwIF-w&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=9d946V5iAXSwK1S7o-zCbpyA_fZfM-ZYcOvKLtr3a9Y&s=5pPUf05uVeGJUYsxJB1rJuQso7mYvAq9jUd3qwD95D0&e=> (an event I covered in my final Fifth Joint Point chapter), and attempting to demonstrate the intellectual vacuity of some of the social justice perspectives in the academy: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.nytimes.com_2018_10_04_arts_academic-2Djournals-2Dhoax.html-3Femc-3Dedit-5Fth-5F181005-26nl-3Dtodaysheadlines-26nlid-3D352238941005&d=DwIF-w&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=9d946V5iAXSwK1S7o-zCbpyA_fZfM-ZYcOvKLtr3a9Y&s=67xEdEy7wYbhtXWZW9UwCw24qLsOn8Ow9u8Z1tLb0KM&e=
I am sharing these two events for us to reflect on where we are in terms of our social identity, and how to think about it. I think the juxtaposition between these two events is striking. As Tom Friedman put it a couple of days ago<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.nytimes.com_2018_10_02_opinion_the-2Damerican-2Dcivil-2Dwar-2Dpart-2Dii.html&d=DwIF-w&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=9d946V5iAXSwK1S7o-zCbpyA_fZfM-ZYcOvKLtr3a9Y&s=v14ec8ZgWFUCFomG7uShbvNe2uIbd-kSNzC13-BwsAU&e=> (American Civil War, Part II), we are about as ideologically divided as ever before.
Given this, and our knowledge of psychology and sociology, what might be some adaptive paths going forward?
Best,
Gregg
___________________________________________
Gregg Henriques, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Graduate Psychology
216 Johnston Hall
MSC 7401
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
(540) 568-7857 (phone)
(540) 568-4747 (fax)
Be that which enhances dignity and well-being with integrity.
Check out my Theory of Knowledge blog at Psychology Today at:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.psychologytoday.com_blog_theory-2Dknowledge&d=DwIF-w&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=9d946V5iAXSwK1S7o-zCbpyA_fZfM-ZYcOvKLtr3a9Y&s=eeajn6EwpMXLrCYjoeCOCPireGGjQqBYu4EYRBmcxuM&e=
Check out my webpage at:
www.gregghenriques.com<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.gregghenriques.com&d=DwIF-w&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=9d946V5iAXSwK1S7o-zCbpyA_fZfM-ZYcOvKLtr3a9Y&s=boj7ONbhhGp9805gosXiWlu-mEk6SDtU2gLKgweYXsc&e=>
############################
To unsubscribe from the TOK-SOCIETY-L list: write to: mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:mailto:[log in to unmask]> or click the following link: http://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=TOK-SOCIETY-L&A=1
############################
To unsubscribe from the TOK-SOCIETY-L list:
write to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
or click the following link:
http://listserv.jmu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=TOK-SOCIETY-L&A=1
|
