Ranciere Session2

From Studyplace

These are notes from the second session's small group work at the Ranciere seminar.

• Matt
• Diane
• Eric
• Scott sseaboldt@nred.org
• Susan-Mary

[edit] Morning

[edit] Explicator

• infinite recursion
• constructivism
• how does this oppose to dialogical techniques where learning is scene as a process
• rejects dialog when he separates
• verification: process not the product

[edit] Circle of Power

• "circle" created by necessity, the method cannot be institutionalized — must spread from person to person
• good master provides a framework where the student studies
• informal learning, like language
• circle of power vs. circle of powerlessness
• Ranciere vs Freire
  • both want emancipation
  • learners need to recognize their own knowledge
  • process of self-emancipation
• "chance" or "vista", an opening in the order for self-learning
  • Jacatot's chance occurred with Telemachus
• will versus intelligence
  • the (good) master tells you what to do, not what to think
• verification must be public, there is no emancipation if it's not public (i.e. political)
• attention to detail being the persistence of the will (p 33)

[edit] Blind man and the dog

• panecostic, everything is in everything
  • hologram example, the same from every vantage
  • the learner is complete
• study's goal is to continually verify the equality of intelligence, what one human created another human can understand because they have the same will
• blind man and his dog: the blind man is the old master and the dog is his "inferior". this is not a conversation. (p 41)

[edit] Idea-ists vs. Thing-ists

• reverses Descartes — I am, therefor I think. Will comes first, before action and before understanding. (p.62)
• will is the key to learning as well as genius, there is not greater or lesser innate capacity (p 56)
• opposes self-knowledge in emancipation, as opposed to Plato's predetermined view

[edit] Questions/Themes

• how does Ranciere relate to Freire and Critical Pedagogy?
• what is the role of "chance" in politics? how does this relate to the role of the philosopher?

[edit] Afternoon

[edit] Truth, veracity, improvisation

• two lies: "I am telling the truth" and "I cannot say." are both lies — you cannot know the truth, you are always expressing your idea, but you can always speak, tell, it is a predicate of equality.

• what is truth for ranciere?
  • p 58, truth is reproducible
  • truth is the absence of lying
• truth is external, hard, and factual

"Truth doesn't bring people together at all. It is not given to us. It exists independently from us and does not submit to our piecemeal sentences." (p.58)

• veracity — somehow related to verification, authentic communication
• wisdom? a result from following your path and not forgetting yourself
• knowing yourself is knowing that you have "equal intelligence", equality of consciousness

methods of universal teaching

Chance, verification, and process are the central ideas.

• improvisation: ask students to improvise, this verifies the equality of intelligence — they can approach any task
  • examples of essays and paintings
• meta-cognitive reflection, require student to show their process, enables the ignorant to be the teacher/schoolmaster

[edit] Inequality, hegemony

• Hobbes vs Roussea, it is easier but not deterministic that inequality is the norm
  • we trade our inferiority to some for the privilege to be superior to others (p 80)

aggregation

• the citizen is not reasonable — citizens are part of the aggregate, not individuals. individuals are reasonable, but that does not lead to a reasonable society (p 84 also see p 102)
• equality leads to a just, reasonable society
• aggregate is the "countable", the arithmetic, where Ranciere prefers geometry
• when we aggregate, we leave out the "parts left over"
• "the paradox of the inegalitarian fiction: social inequality is unthinkable, impossible, except on the basis of he primary equality of intelligence (p 87)."
  • there is only inequality if both parties know it, there is no inequality between humans and cows

Thomas Hischhorn statement : http://www.tate.org.uk/tateshots/episode.jsp?item=9115

[edit] The Progressive's Myth

• individuals can only emancipate individuals
  • universal teaching belongs to families (p 103)

• institutions cannot be emancipatory — there is no silver bullet, no sweeping reform