TESC is to my knowledge the only liberal arts college
in the USA where the structure of learning is truly interdisciplinary. Instead of taking individual classes, TESC
is set up such that each semester I would sign up for a 16 credit program
taught by a faculty team that combined a variety of disciplines and
perspectives. Instead of reading
textbooks and spitting back random facts on tests, we read primary sources and participated
in book seminars.
With a background like this, it was no surprise to me that
I would find Jaynes’ creative and insightful synthesis of ideas from such a
wide spectrum of sources truly exciting and far beyond my experience of the piecemeal
research that is typical of mainstream academia. Unfortunately,
I have read remarks from people, often times who had at least some enthusiasm
for Jaynes’ work, still being willing to call him a dilatant and otherwise
criticizing Jaynes for being so brash as to
think he had anything important to say about fields that he had not received an
academic imprimatur for. And beyond these
people, I have encountered many scholars that have offhandedly dismissed Jaynes
work with a few superficial remarks. Perhaps
this was pay back for Jaynes public comments describing most academic research
as focused so narrowly as to be concerned with “petty, petty humdrum things”,
and the work being done in his own field of psychology as “bad poetry disguised
as science” (which the scrutiny that has been given in the last 10 or 15 years
to much of the past and present social science research seems to be substantiating). However, my experience has been that the
comments of those who casually dismiss Jaynes indicate a poor understanding of
his ideas, and that many of them appear to have not even bothered to take time
to investigate Jaynes’ evidence or reasoning—a symptom I think of people used
to the narrow and insulated structure of academic departments being overwhelmed
by what appears to them as such fantastical ideas.*
I am no Julian Jaynes, but, regarding the topic just
discussed, I do feel I am a kindred spirit.
That is, I do not have a research background or a list of academic qualifications. Most of the subjects and ideas I want to
cover in this blog are the product of my own informal research and experience powered
by my own unremitting curiosity and hyperactive imagination. I believe my experience at TESC and continuing intellectual journey has given me the freedom to explore and think very broadly beyond what the confines of academia often allow for.
In the end then, I suppose it would be best for me to
be considered as writing this blog from the perspective of a science journalist,
though I have no training or experience in that field either. I ask the reader to make allowances for my
limitations and help improve what I write with
thoughtful replies to my posts. I hope
in return the mind of the reader of this blog is stretched a bit more toward becoming
the daring and insightful thinker that was Julian Jaynes.
* The reader who is interested in knowing more about the
specific misinformed criticism of Jaynes’ work can see the excellent Critiques
and Responses section of the Julian Jaynes Society website.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Check your browser for pop up blockers as they have interfered with some people's ability to post comments.