Rough Theory

Theory In The Rough

Monthly Archives: December 2006

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

3 Comments Posted by on December 31, 2006

My attempt to place public pressure on myself not to blog during the holidays appears to be failing miserably. This failure places me, I think, in a particularly hopeless subset of resolution renegers: where most people will make new year’s resolutions, only to see their resolve falter at some point during the new year, I [...]

Blogging, Reading Group

This Is Not a Post

1 Comment Posted by on December 29, 2006

Still intending on maintaining my holiday blogging hiatus, but wanted to post some organisational updates for the reading group in the new year, and couldn’t resist tossing up a bit of ephemera while I was at the keyboard… On the ephemera side of the equation: my favourite coffeeshop, where I often spend my mornings reading [...]

Blogging, Overheard, Procrastination, Reading Group

Holiday Hiatus

4 Comments Posted by on December 25, 2006

Taking a brief holiday break from blogging – mainly to try to consolidate some of what I’ve been thinking and writing in various contexts recently, into a less gestural and perhaps more useful form… I couldn’t resist reproducing the recently uncovered Tennessee Williams’ poem – not as a reflection, I should stress, of my mood [...]

Blogging

The Weakness of Strong Ties

Leave a Comment Posted by on December 25, 2006

The issue of how bounded our personal and professional networks can be, and how this affects our ability to empathise and communicate across networks, seems to be in the academic air a bit at the moment – perhaps because so many conferences are both reconstituting and – hopefully – stretching established networks a bit this [...]

Critical Theory, Links, Philosophy of History, Political Economy, Politics, Professional Life

Santa Pause

3 Comments Posted by on December 24, 2006

Small suggestion to roving santas cropping up in unexpected places along the street: if a small boy looks absolutely terrified of you, to the point that he embeds himself bodily into his parent’s leg and will later require an almost surgical extraction, chances are it isn’t the best idea to continue following the boy’s family [...]

Family, Overheard

Bleg: Histories of the Concept of “Bias”?

Leave a Comment Posted by on December 24, 2006

Probably the worst time of the year to post a bleg, but hopefully some folks might still see this when they trickle back from the holidays… I’m interested in tracking down some useful articles or books on the history of the concept of bias in research methodology (or of related concepts such as the principle [...]

Math and Science, Philosophy of History, Social Science

Distinction

6 Comments Posted by on December 23, 2006

Someone sent me an email link to Richard Hamming’s (1986) “You and Your Research”, which I have read previously, but not for some time. The piece analyses why a few scientists manage to make significant contributions to their field, while the rest of us… not so much… ;-P

Links, Methodology

The Dead Weight of Tradition

1 Comment Posted by on December 22, 2006

Below the fold is just a bit of archived work – a piece that’s seven or eight years old now. I’m posting it here mainly for my own convenience, although it might hold curiosity value for a few other people. The piece was an attempt, essentially, to think out loud on the subject of how [...]

Critical Theory, Drafts, Philosophy of History, Political Economy

Giving as Knowing Where the Wild Things Are…

Leave a Comment Posted by on December 22, 2006

From Marginal Revolution, a few holiday reflections on the conflictual psychology of receiving: Giving to my Wild Self The economist in me says the best gift is cash. The rest of me rebels. Some people argue that the reason we don’t give cash is because that is too easy – to show that we know [...]

Links, Procrastination

Fragment of a Conversation on Immanence

Leave a Comment Posted by on December 22, 2006

Yesterday’s conversation is still percolating along at Larval Subjects. I wanted to cross-post here the most recent comment I’ve made (minus its chatty introduction), mainly because these are issues – in a very condensed form – I’ve been meaning to take up here, in part because they gesture toward how I might think about addressing [...]

Conversations, Critical Theory, Math and Science, Philosophy of History, Political Economy

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