This week’s discussion focused on systematic theory and specifically addressed the topics of ontology and epistemology. This is some heady stuff.
After our class discussion on epistemology, I felt a bit more confused than when I entered, but not at all in a bad way. I really enjoyed lesson (nice job Samson, Sarah, and McKenzie!) and our subsequent discussion, especially when it veered off topic into territories that were previously unknown to me. What the discussion boiled down to was knowledge: what it is, how we count things as knowledge, and that there is often disagreement on what the truth is. There was talk of methods of finding the truth and which methods are “better” than others which led to, well neither is better, it just depends on what your looking for. In “Searching for Common Ground”, N. Katherine Hayles taught us about the “cusp” where what the individual brings to the picture and what is come together. As Ben joked about riding the cusp, Johnny Cash’s “Walk the Line” played in my head.
Running parallel to a discussion of knowledge across the room, the small group I was part of focused on the actor network theory, a favorite tool of Bruno Latour. All I knew about ANT was from the copious amounts of concept maps I composed for assignments in environmental studies classes. We were talking about a mini thought experiment dubbed “The Knot Analogy” that Andy Bernstein had once posed to Jacob. The way “The Knot Analogy” goes is a knot (representing an actor in our case) is made up of many strings (representing connections). Without the strings, the knot does not exist or without the connections the actor does not exist. This blew my mind. What is “real” in this case is not the actor/object/thing/person, it is the connections and relationships. I am nothing without the experiences I have had. It could be said that I am actually just made of experiences, that we all are.
I felt cheated when I finally understood this concept, like someone had been lying to me for my three years of college and finally thought I was ready to hear the truth.
I wanted to tell freshman the truth! I want them to know that the knot is not what exists; it’s the connections that are real.
I think they may just stare at me blankly and eventually look back at their computers to read an article, learn something about someone on Facebook, and unwittingly, unknowingly make their nonexistent knots bigger.
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