Part of the danger Chuck refers to is that some people will come
to take our theories more seriously than we do, and potentially
do harm to themselves or others by using them. I think we see
this in education every year! Part of the problem, in my opinion,
is that too many theories put themselves forward (i.e. their
authors and supporters do) without much humility or proper
warning labels on the packages. And too many potential users are
looking for an Answer in which they can have Faith. I would much
rather that everybody agree that theories are fallible tools,
good for this and not for that, always more or less biased by
their origins and the projects of their users. But it is the
uses, not the theories, for which moral responsibility should be
taken, and this rests with the users. The moral responsibility of
the theorist is not to claim universal truth and applicability,
and in fact to positively disclaim it.
That unfortunately undermines one of the principal modes of
social control in our society today: the technocratic ideology.
Claims of truth are regularly transformed, by discursive sleight-
of-hand (see _Textual Politics_ chap 4 for an analysis) into
imperatives for action. To give up truth claims is to give up a
source of power. To give up taking our theories so seriously
means people have to find other grounds for action, and have to
argue for and against policy in explicit values terms, and not
displace the argument onto the terrain of factuality. We have to
learn to live with irresolvable values conflict and give up the
dream that objective truth-seeking will settle matters for us.
Most empirical research in the human sciences belongs to value-
driven projects to begin with, and never escapes these projects.
So also with our theories. I take very serious responsibility for
the values foundations of my own theoretical discussions and
research projects. JAY.
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JAY LEMKE.
City University of New York.
BITNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM
INTERNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU