The Practice of Theoretical Curiosity

225 Pages·2012·1.34 MB·English

by  Mark Zuss (auth.)

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
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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