Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 37, No. 327.
Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
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Date: 2023-11-22 08:17:20+00:00
From: maurizio lana <maurizio.lana@uniupo.it>
Subject: Re: [Humanist] 37.324: a wandering, multi-perspectival discipline?
Il 22/11/23 08:04, Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk> ha
scritto:
> Something tossed out for you to consider, argue about, if you like:
>
> A discipline (to echo the OED) is at root what a group of 'disciples' do.
> By gathering together in whatever ways, they make their discipline
> stronger, more coherent--and inward-looking. For a new field (referring
> to Galison's 'trading zone' argument*) what matters is what they gather
> around, what they have in common. It's been a problem for digital
> humanities as such a field to lay claim to that common ground without
> others claiming it for their own--to whom does 'the digital' belong?
> Some respond by configuring themselves as amateur X's--literary critics,
> sociologists &al. This gives us a clue. Would it be better not only to think
> of the digital humanities (as I just implied) pluralistically but
> then leap to the generalisation that digital humanities is a perspective
> on everything else affected by whatever its practitioners encounter?
hi Willard,
to think that "digital humanities is a perspective on everything else
affected by whatever its practitioners encounter" is precisely the
"amateur X's perspective" which can be appealing to some but which is
deadly for those who think of the disciplines and the fields in a
political perspective, where with political i mean "aware of and
responsible for, the implications for the whole society (and for the
world)".
because in the amateur X's perspective good science and fake science do
coexist and if everything is at level of amateur-ship how can one say to
another "this/yours is fake digital humanities"? while in many other
fields (say organic chemistry, astrophysics, italian literature, etc.)
one cannot declare themselves "i am an expert of italian literature"
while speaking of french literature, or the like. fact is that after the
dark ages, now everyone does digital humanities, but we know that most
of the times this at its best a marketing claim for old clothes or no
clothes at all.
where is the "political" side of all this? that fake digital humanities
projects, and fake digital humanists, steal space, jobs, resources to
true digital humanities projects, and true digital humanists.
i know that this polarization between true and fake is a little harsh
but i think that the society progresses only with true knowledge, at all
levels and in all fields; and that we can certainly let those who wish
to do so proceed in the amateur way; but we cannot give up the
disciplinary perspective that not only has meaning for true
practitioners, but also serves to ensure the public, society, buys true
and solid content when they buy "digital humanities".
> This would be fatal if it led to panoptic arrogance. But would it not mar
wonderful opportunities to look now there, now here, and put the pieces
together, make epistemic patterns, follow them, see what can be seen?
in "wonderful opportunities to look now there, now here, and put the
pieces together, make epistemic patterns, follow them, see what can be
seen" i see another way to say serendipity, but that was what princes
did in their spare time; most of the time they were making rules and
regulations (good ones, hopefully) for their kingdom in Serendip.
ciao!
Maurizio
------------------------------------------------------------------------
il pubblico uso della propria ragione deve sempre essere libero
immanuel kant
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maurizio Lana
Università del Piemonte Orientale
Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici
Piazza Roma 36 - 13100 Vercelli
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