This week we get to write about all the things many of us wanted to talk about for hours—maybe over beer: the faith-science wars, the state we're in with our various 'worldviews.' Bleeding mystics; indubitable 'selves,' reason (and faith), hypnotized away warts, whether God cuts private deals. Placebos, intercessory prayer, and the entire mind-body split.
What we've been calling the 'Cartesian Moment' (Descartes' successfully elevating REASON to the center of all knowledge, and banishing the BODY and all its attributes) changed everything. Lewontin began his entire critique by calling the 'Cartesian' split (a 'reductionism') into question on many grounds. Latour: la meme chose.
We claimed that we were all 'Cartesians' even if we'd never read a word of his or even heard his name.
Fair enough. So now what?
Well, for starters, let's try to make 'common sense' of the idea that we're sort of trapped by the ways we see the world, and have trouble imagining things any other way. The idea that the world is 'framed' by certain 'paradigms' or 'world views'—ours being pretty 'Cartesian.'
Explain how Descartes 'inhabits' Steven Pinker (or Mustapha Mond), or the TLC producers interested in couch-eaters (or other 'strange addictions'), or people loving Blessed Teresa (or some of us thinking 'she faked it'), or people trying to define and locate Kye Allums' gender / sex, or the guys writing the DSM, or the Merck Manual, or the Founding Fathers, or, or, or. Find a good example to read closely—ours are fine; so are yours if you've got one. Whatever works. Find something where you can surprise us by disclosing how we think—and didn't know it. Got something cool from your letter to the editor? Sure you can expand on that, if you're still interested.
Then suggest how this all plays out—theoretically, scientifically, ethically, historically, whatever. Work with our readings. How are we bamboozled and how might we get un-bamboozled? Alternatively: how does our 'reason,' rightly used, steer us right? How do we need to think in order to see more clearly?
What we've been calling the 'Cartesian Moment' (Descartes' successfully elevating REASON to the center of all knowledge, and banishing the BODY and all its attributes) changed everything. Lewontin began his entire critique by calling the 'Cartesian' split (a 'reductionism') into question on many grounds. Latour: la meme chose.
We claimed that we were all 'Cartesians' even if we'd never read a word of his or even heard his name.
Fair enough. So now what?
Well, for starters, let's try to make 'common sense' of the idea that we're sort of trapped by the ways we see the world, and have trouble imagining things any other way. The idea that the world is 'framed' by certain 'paradigms' or 'world views'—ours being pretty 'Cartesian.'
Explain how Descartes 'inhabits' Steven Pinker (or Mustapha Mond), or the TLC producers interested in couch-eaters (or other 'strange addictions'), or people loving Blessed Teresa (or some of us thinking 'she faked it'), or people trying to define and locate Kye Allums' gender / sex, or the guys writing the DSM, or the Merck Manual, or the Founding Fathers, or, or, or. Find a good example to read closely—ours are fine; so are yours if you've got one. Whatever works. Find something where you can surprise us by disclosing how we think—and didn't know it. Got something cool from your letter to the editor? Sure you can expand on that, if you're still interested.
Then suggest how this all plays out—theoretically, scientifically, ethically, historically, whatever. Work with our readings. How are we bamboozled and how might we get un-bamboozled? Alternatively: how does our 'reason,' rightly used, steer us right? How do we need to think in order to see more clearly?
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