The Practice of Theoretical Curiosity PDF
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The Practice of Theoretical Curiosity EXPLORATIONS OF EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE Volume20 FoundingEditor JoeKincheloe(1950–2008) SeriesEditors ShirleyR.Steinberg,McGillUniversity,Montreal,Quebec,Canada KennethTobin,CityUniversityofNewYork,USA EditorialBoard BarrieBarrell,MemorialUniversityofNewfoundland,Canada RochelleBrock,UniversityofIndiana,Gary,USA StephenPetrina,UniversityofBritishColumbia,Canada ChristineQuail,StateUniversityofNewYork,Oneonta,USA NelsonRodriguez,CollegeofNewJersey,USA LeilaVillaverde,UniversityofNorthCarolina,Greensboro,USA JohnWillinsky,StanfordUniversity,USA SeriesScope In today’s dominant modes of pedagogy, questions about issues of race, class, gender,sexuality,colonialism,religion,andothersocialdynamicsarerarelyasked. Questionsaboutthesocialspaceswherepedagogytakesplace–inschools,media, andcorporatethinktanks–arenotraised.Andtheyneedtobe. TheExplorationsofEducationalPurposebookseriescanhelpestablisharenewed interest in such questions and their centrality in the larger study of education and thepreparationofteachersandothereducationalprofessionals.Theeditorsofthis series feel that education matters and that the world is in need of a rethinking of educationandeducationalpurpose. Coming from a critical pedagogical orientation, Explorations of Educational Purpose aims to have the study of education transcend the trivialization that often degradesit.Ratherthanbecontentwiththefrivolous,scholarlylaxformsofteacher educationandweakteachingprevailingintheworldtoday,weshouldworktowards education that truly takes the unattained potential of human beings as its starting point.Theserieswillpresentstudiesofalldimensionsofeducationandofferalter- natives.Theultimateaimoftheseriesistocreatenewpossibilitiesforpeoplearound the world who suffer under the current design of socio-political and educational institutions. Forfurthervolumes: http://www.springer.com/series/7472 Mark Zuss The Practice of Theoretical Curiosity 123 MarkZuss CityUniversityofNewYork GraduateCenter SeeleyStreet250 11218Brooklyn NY,USA [email protected] ©CopyrightwithAuthor ISBN978-94-007-2116-6 e-ISBN978-94-007-2117-3 DOI10.1007/978-94-007-2117-3 SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergLondonNewYork LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2011934270 ©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2012 Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyformorby anymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,microfilming,recordingorotherwise,withoutwritten permissionfromthePublisher,withtheexceptionofanymaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurpose ofbeingenteredandexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework. Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) Preface This project derives from the many sources of influence that have lured, diverted, andbeckonedme.Asanimprintofthepassionandpursuitofknowledge,thistextis onlyatraceofitsabidingpresenceinmylife,and,asIhopetoillustrate,thesocial natureofourembodiment.Affirmingarestlessnessofmindandbody,thisproject is one arbitrary point of convergence for many projects across the disciplines. It is intended as a recognition of the power of knowledge in the plural, a tribute and questioningoftheplacesofquestionsinourcontemporaryworld. Among the impulses that motivate this writing has been the persistent urge to becomeintimatewithlibraries.Writingamongothersinreadingrooms,especially in the magnificent main reading room of the New York Public Library, amid the shuffling of pages, has stirred a desire to wonder about the motivations and kinds of interests other than mine that are in progress. In the diversity of things know- able, my own inquisitiveness has frequently led me to pore over the volumes and materialsleftbyotherresearchersattheirtables.Asiftingofdocuments andtheir watermarked weight of signs is always a project of images and text in encounter. Poringoverolderbooksorvolumeslittleusedsummonsformeadesiretodecipher originary traces, our tribal language’s filiations in sense and memory. Histories of timestartupfrommargins,fleewithassociativethought,loosenedfromliteralref- erence;fromnerverootsstilldarkwithplace,underlamplight,theimprintofhand andinstrument,thewriterandreadersojournundertheauspicesofthistechnology of hands, their internal gestures rendered in slow arcs, loops, and plumes of ink, type,andpixel. Itisnotahistoryofwritingorthewritingsofhistorythatinterestmehere,nor how specific and always partial histories are inscribed by inflection, accents, and tropesinthetrainsofthought.Memoriesconvergeinthemomentumofimages,the writingoflightandshadowsintheirconstantlyrevisablereadingsandfigurations.It isthelureoftheunknown,thepulseofwhatremainsunsaidandpossiblyunsayable. I remain a curious listener, perhaps even an eavesdropper too, to the murmur, the circadian, tidal impress on what is thought and written that stirs my own. It is the bodies’imagesseizingandplyingfoldsofthevisibleandarticulable;itissometimes justthestumblingstartofarhythm,theirdistantbutapproachingsoundsconjoined inadissonancefromwhichIhearstrainsofvirtualsongs. v vi Preface Iamcuriousaboutrainandprisms,thewaytheafternoonlightoutsidemywin- dowsbreaksthroughawedgeoftheavenue’ssycamoretrees;aboutwhatiscalled chance and the play of the contingent in the mundane habits of my life; about the possible fortunes and futures of the human and its various hybrids; about ways of beingandknowingthatcreatewhatFoucaultoncesuggestedinthinkingofacriti- calcommunity;intechnicallymediatedrelationsbetweentheformsoflifeintheir globalcommotion;inallpracticesandinstancesthatquestionandresistthestamps andpostmarksofaninstrumentalmodernity;aboutnewexpressionsofsingularity anddifference,corporeality,andbecoming. Iwishtoacknowledgethesourcesofsupportandencouragementforthisproject. IwanttothankmystudentsandcolleaguesattheGraduateandUniversityCenter oftheCityofNewYork.AmongthemIwishtoacknowledgethesustainedsupport ofKenTobin,aswellasGaoyinQian,LehmanCollege,andLakshmiBadlamudi, La Guardia Community College. The conversations, ideas, and enthusiasm of for- mer and current students, including Christine Siry, Carolyne Ali-Khan, and Gene Fellner, have goaded me into thinking about the origins and logics” of inquiry. Most of all, to Lisa Lincoln, who has always encouraged this project and who accompaniesmeincraftingthefuture. A “Just” Curious Introduction Ridingalonginmyautomobile Mybabybesidemeatthewheel Istoleakissattheturnofamile mycuriosityrunningwild cruisin’andplayin’theradio withnoparticularplacetogo ChuckBerry It remains fashionable to be curious. In contemporary consumer and industrial countries,analert,attentivemindiscelebrated;inthemodernistWestitisacknowl- edged as a disposition receptive to novelty, knowledge, conversation, and image, responsivetoallmannerofstimuliinanexploratory,playfulenvironment.Strongly associated within the affective and cognitive contexts of human development, creativity, and educational experiences, curiosity reigns as a particularly alluring marker of native intelligence. It is a sign of childhood’s epistemic roots as they intertwinetowardadultcognitionandparticipationinliberaldemocraticcitizenry.A blazonofmodernity’sownself-recognition,curiosity,signifyingalacrity,awilling- nesstosurprise,towelcometheunexpected,itrepresents,andisoftenuncritically applauded,asauniversalfacetofathrivingemotionalandintellectualengagement withtheworld. Infrequentlyquestioned,thisreadinesstoquestiontheorderandpatternsofexpe- rience is rarely itself the subject of inquiry. As a peculiar turn of the mind, it pursuesthesingular,theodd,irregular,andnovelaspectsofthefamiliar,signaling anoftendiscomfitingindeterminacyandlackoffinality.Thehistoricalandcultural conditionsthatinitiate,augment,andregulateitareleft,curiouslyenough,largely ignored. Lightingthesparkthatspursresearch,curiosityisthespiritofanabidinginquis- itivenessrealizedindistinctsocialpractices.Itistheintentofthisstudytoattempta historicalprofileofcuriosity’splacesandappearancesincontemporarylife.Cultural dynamics, interests and relations in class-stratified and consumer-driven societies presentdistinctvariationsthat,ifnotatoddswith,arestarklydifferentiatedfromits older,theologicallysaturated,oremergentlysecularsanctioningandmoralvalences. The interests that motivate my own curiosity are evident in the selections and vii viii A“Just”CuriousIntroduction emphasesmadefromtheirreduciblyvastresourcesandinstancesofitsexpressions. I advocate for an appreciation of practices that stir what I identify as a discerning criticalcuriosity.IneachchapterIofferprofilesofsignificantagentsandpractition- ersoftheoreticalcuriosityinordertoillustratehowtheoreticalprojectsarealways sociallyandinstitutionallyconditioned.Moreover,myownquiteinterestedcuriosity delvesthequestionofthegenerationofthiselusivecriticalengagementandspiritof inquiryitself.Iexploretheelemental,perceptual,andsensequalitiesofexperiential fieldswhosecollectivemomentumcanspawnsustainedprojectsforthereinvention ofeverydaylife. In the questions it allows itself to ask itself the degree to which its passwords, shibboleths,andkeywordsconditiontheshapingofeverydaylife,theoreticalcurios- ityoffersupaportraitofthepossibilitiesofthinkingwithinahistoricalage.Since at least Hume (1965) it begins the process of articulating an existential disquiet. Theoretical curiositycontests culturalspaces forthepersistenceofskepticism,for an abiding and fundamental uncertainty regarding the nature and composition of our world of experience. Complementing and counteracting the force of doctrine, law, and habit, it generates an “uneasiness in its instability and inconstancy.” For Hume, in his skeptical forays, curiosity “pleases because it produces belief, and removes uneasiness and doubt” (p. 655). As a quest, curiosity is paradoxical, at onceanelusiveandfocuseddesire.Itscunningrusesandresearches,thoughoften obliqueandindirect,workwithoutpreexistingmaps,schema,oraprioricategory.It canbeatworkandplaywheresomethingishidden,anomalous,missing,oruncer- tain.Generatinggenuinelyinquisitivequestionsandpersistinginsearchingfortheir place among the phantoms and ephemeral streams of experience, practitioners of theoretical curiosity suspend expectation. It sets aside prior knowledge in systems ofinquirybasedonanycertaintyoftheworldandtheorderofthings. It is worthwhile to separate the forking paths of interest, wonder, and curios- ity,oftheforbiddenfromthemerelymarginal,andtheobjectsofstudyone“dares to know” from those that pose too great a risk to the intellectual adventurer. This is a process of domestication of the unknown or unknowable, of what, Charles Nicholls(1997),inabiographicalinterpretationofArthurRimbaud’sabandonment of European culture and literature for his African business exploits, regards as an “entropicdwindlingoftheunknownintothefamiliar”(p.149).Manyresearchpro- grams and their research communities gain recognition and stature as they come into focus for their potential utility. These institutionally forced programs and methods of knowledge-work, as in genetics and nanotechnology, for instance, are instrumentally managed. All research converts “noise” into information in some manner,detectingpatternandsymmetries.Researchesinthetechnosciencestoday must ferret through vast quantities of “data” in the phenomena they study, pursu- ing the anomalous in the active cultivation of what appears as plausibly relevant andcoherentwithininitialformsofrandomness.Atthehistoricalbeginningofthe experimental method, Francis Bacon’s (1996) inquiring mind could observe that “there is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion” (p.189). A“Just”CuriousIntroduction ix LetmestateherethatwhileIdistinguishtheoreticalcuriosityanditsforaysfrom “ordinary” curiosity, this work stresses their common origin in our embodied per- ceptual orientation within situated contexts and “lifeworlds.” I reject all dualisms in partitioning affect and reason, sense and intellect, and theory and practice. My inquiryheresuggeststhatintellectualandtheoreticalcuriosityinhabitnopermanent epistemological or cognitive niches. They do not constitute or represent a unified “faculty”oressenceofthemind.Theypartakesimultaneouslyinprocessesengag- ingavailablehistoricalnetworksandsocialresourcesinsofarastheyprovideforor restrictaprimaryhumandesireforknowledge.Sustained,purposeful,orapparently useless “blue sky” inquiries are gateways to what, for the empiricists and skeptics alike,wasthefancyorimaginativefaculty. Oneintentionofthisprojectistoleaveopenthequestionoftheeffectivepurpose andsocialinfluencesthatsupport,sponsor,andcontrolbothpurportedlyspeculative andutilitarianpursuitsofknowledge.Iadamantlywishtoavoidcontributinginany way to curiosity’s domestication. This inquiry into inquiry attempts another track, tracing movements of thought, and, tempts courting a paradox: accepting a will- ful purposelessness and holding back of any necessary utility, value, or use of the inclinationfortheory,includinginitsmostabstractandspeculativepractices,asfor instanceinmathematicalorcosmologicalquests,astheyhewtheirownspecialized, circuitous paths.Thisjettisonsthemillennialshadows castover thequalityofthis uniquelysocialandindividualexperienceinallitsmorallychargedattributionsand aspersions.Theperennialtrespassesandexplorationsassociatedwithithaveborne thebruntofdivergentformsofdisquiet,amongthemtheepistemologicalandpolit- icalissueofwhatcomprisesusefulknowledge.Inattemptingtoquestionthewillto questionitself,Iwishtoholdupforcriticalscrutinycertainphilosophicalandpolit- icalresonancesofitspolyvalenthistoricalreception,initstribulations,celebrations, andcondemnationsalike. Inattemptingtoquestionthewilltoquestionitself,Iholdupforcriticalscrutiny itshistoricalandcontemporaryresonances.Iwishtodemystifycuriosity’speculiar statusincontemporarycultureingeneral,anditsintellectualplace,especiallyinits roleinquestioningthenatureofeverydaylifeandpractice.Iadaptitshistoricaland phenomenologicalnuances,toadvanceasociallyenabledcriticalcuriosity.Thisis intendedasawayofcontinuallyattemptingtomakesenseoftheunchartablecon- tinuaofexperiences,perceptions,pathsofinquiry,andthoughtexperimentswithin specificcommunitiesofcontemporaryculturalpractice.Iofferprofilesoftheways in which some distinctive contemporary cultural and technical practices, in par- ticular pedagogy and technics, including genomics, artificial life, and exobiology, come to public attention. I want to place our theoretical adventures in question, placing accent on the nature of everyday life, its rhythms, order, and potential for transformation. Curiositydeflectsitsownhistoricalinterests.Incontrasttoallaccountsthaterase curiosity’s historical imprints, and those that reduce it to a merely developmental featureexhibitingdistractedattention,Iclaimthatitfunctionsundersuspicion.As analluringqualityofcontemporarycosmopolitanpersonae,asisrecognizedinan open-ended spirit of discovery, and of childhood’s sensory immediacy, I wish to
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