[Jorge]
> Reading about Pirsig's indignation about the
> turn taken by American Anthropology under the
> influence of Boas and his disciples his attacks on
> the role of objectivity in Science are seen in
> another light. Perhaps he over-generalises and his
> wording is too strong, but this could be forgiven in
> writers coming out against what they consider
> threatening trends in their culture; carefully
> worded sentences do not easily impact the public at
> large which is what the writer may intend.
> "The trouble with the objective approach
> --Dusenberry said-- is that you don't learn much
> that way"
> which taken as isolated, out of context, might
> look ludicrous because in Science we have learnt
> quite a lot 'that way' . But Dusenberry wasn't
> talking about Chemistry or Biology, he was talking
> about Anthropology and in this he seemed to be right
> indeed. Not only in Anthropology, but also in
> Sociology or Psychology and the rest of the "Social
> Sciences", to use Dusenberry's wording, we "haven't
> learnt much" and the objective approach is in no
> small measure responsible for the present muddle in
> those fields.
SA:
I feel I'm opening up, even more, to the
perspective that certain intellectual perspectives are
narrowly confined to point out who, in this instance,
Pirsig was against or trying to identify. Thus, there
are different schools of thought in western culture.
How many, I don't know.
Pirsig is pointing out s/o perspectives and the
objectivication in social sciences it would seem here
on this point. Yet, s/o intellectual patterns are not
restricted to a whole of a culture. The whole of
western or eastern or any culture, doesn't have only
one type of intellectual patterning. I've brought
this up recently in the '[MD]Clash of Worldviews' and
in the last post in this thread. This isn't an
argument against what your saying Jorge, this is a
point that I want to make that I'm trying to keep
going so people don't forget or narrow their
perspective from. For instance, James, Dewey, Pirsig,
and the Sophists in ancient Greece are similar in
their intellectual patterning. Thus, I submit that in
this western culture it is more mixed in intellectual
patterning than we may notice. I see Pirsig pointing
out against anthropologist, above, that objectify
their studying. Yet, in the early 1900's an
anthropologists by the name of Bronis?aw Malinowski
who emphasized participation observation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronis?aw_Malinowski
This is an activity in which Malinowski started for he
noticed anthropologists were trying to study other
cultures high up on veranda's, but he perceived this
as inadequate. So, he began his famous 'off the
veranda' ethnography. He immersed himself in other
cultures, and participated with them, observing what
he and others were doing. Thus, this is a form of
experiencing first-hand another culture, then
intellectualizing latter in his journels at night or
what have you about what he and others did during the
events in which he participated. He would have
informants and discuss with people of these cultures,
too, so his way of studying wasn't restricted to just
participation observation and informants. Malinowski
was of another school, therefore. One different than
merely objectifying and thus, observing what he was
trying to learn about. Malinowski is one of the most
well-known anthropologists. I see Pirsig (Dusenberry)
pointing out and arguing against a certain school.
Western culture is full of different schools of
thought, and Pirsig is arguing against certain ones.
Western culture isn't purely SOM or s/o
intellectually. But the case might be made that
Pirsig, James, Thoreau, Martin, and others (such as
Malinowski) were/(are in their books) arguing against
the most emphasized or dominant intellectual pattern,
though.
thanks.
SA
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