tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post8529848895372152961..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: The Deep and the Personal: The Future?Cord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-25854608443282901502012-10-03T17:48:54.275-04:002012-10-03T17:48:54.275-04:00It seemed during the excellent back and forth that...It seemed during the excellent back and forth that the initial suggestions for differences between humanistic and scientific modes of inquiry resembled the differences between inductive and deductive modes of reasoning, but I don't think this fact is true at all. Humanities scholars have to combine inductive and deductive modes, though I think we do tend to start inductively. Lindy mentioned later in the evening that she didn't think that division held up either, and that scientists don't really follow the much-vaunted "Scientific Method." So, what's the defining difference in approach between the two areas, or are the differences mostly a matter of long-standing delusions that we deceive ourselves with?Ryan Judkinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05158174415649117899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-9425280429381384282012-10-02T21:39:07.439-04:002012-10-02T21:39:07.439-04:00I was really struck, in the interview you did with...I was really struck, in the interview you did with each other, how quickly Jeffrey moved from the idea that humanities research would begin from the same point as the sciences: what's your big question? what problem are you trying to solve?<br /><br />Fifteen years ago I would have had the same response. But in the Australian funding/research regimes, so many of our practices and scholarly decorums are modelled on science disciplines, so that we have become accustomed to ask similar questions of ourselves from the beginning. Our PhD students are similarly encouraged to formulate research questions from the beginning. And we all routinely now formulate our methodological approaches, our research aims, the significance of our research, etc. That may not always be a good thing, but it has helped us have conversations researchers beyond the humanities, at least, and make our work intelligible to them. <br /><br />On good days, I've certainly heard scientists (a close friend of mine leads the Australian wing of the Hadron collider project) speak passionately and politically about their work, too, of course. <br /><br />I liked the exchange very much, and would like to have heard more about Lindy's research, and her own research questions, too. This old world is a new worldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11567163294720510335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-42073675872207558432012-10-02T18:48:07.476-04:002012-10-02T18:48:07.476-04:00A flip side to this question might also be: how do...A flip side to this question might also be: how do abstractions help you think through complex ideas?Eileen Joyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13756965845120441308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-9727038379203451532012-10-02T18:46:51.699-04:002012-10-02T18:46:51.699-04:00Okay, typo police:
beliegs = beliefs
firms = for...Okay, typo police:<br /><br />beliegs = beliefs<br /><br />firms = formsEileen Joyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13756965845120441308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-37826926208960808932012-10-02T18:44:20.853-04:002012-10-02T18:44:20.853-04:00I would like to reprise the question of beauty, ac...I would like to reprise the question of beauty, actually, which I think is fraught with all sorts of problems even just within the humanities, where, believe it or not, Lindy, we're a little bit embarrassed to talk about it (with some notable exceptions, such as Harvard professor Elaine Scarry's book on the subject). We worry that conversations about beauty will lapse into universalist values abd beliegs that might occlude important cultural and other types of difference. But maybe we could put the concept of beauty into a temporary holding pattern and ask a slightly different question about aesthetics: Lindy and Jeffrey, how do the forms of things, whether a literary genre or what we might think of as the shapes of planetary formations, or shapes in general, either constrain or enliven our modes of thought and ability to conceptualize new ideas? Also, what firms serve as your strange attractors?Eileen Joyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13756965845120441308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-87128571630918607782012-10-02T11:00:40.868-04:002012-10-02T11:00:40.868-04:00From Lindy -- Yes, please, send us feedback or ide...From Lindy -- Yes, please, send us feedback or ideas if anything has occurred to you. We're also considering a reenactment, or really, a reprise and continuation, at a place and time yet to be determined (and this time to be recorded). The Babel conference was energizing and fascinating to me. Thank you all again so much for helping me feel so welcome!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01994363938995011305noreply@blogger.com