Academic Discourse

(This is just a quick temporary note since I fully intend to write on the subject once the exams are over. )

The academic discourse has always been subjected to two criteria as mentioned by Burboles - rhetoric and syllogism. Can we conceive of any other way of writing and thinking intellectually without linearity? Can people think in multi-directional rather than linear tracks? The most brilliant people I know never think linearly but multi-linearly. They pursue different and often unrelated paths while maintaining coherency with their superior powers of concentration. I would give a hand and a leg to be able to think like that.

For some, however, multi-dimensionality is the recipe of chaos and horror. For some, what they do not understand, what does not conform to their expectations and tastes, is ridiculous. Well, perhaps as they say, there are people who treats the use of hyperlinks as an irresponsible escape, I don't know. But I do know that wherever there is something new, failures are common. It is not a sign that the new method/idea/phenomenon does not work. To reject a new way of action simply because it threatens the security of established norms is the surest sign of stagnation. The world would never change with them. But the world would change regardless of them.

 

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