tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2274849647524601103.post3307105338727351353..comments2024-01-09T03:06:16.501-06:00Comments on The Good Enough Professor: In the Kettle with the Boiled FrogsKWhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07114727221915528878noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2274849647524601103.post-75844758580317798642014-08-31T00:19:57.828-05:002014-08-31T00:19:57.828-05:00Brilliant! This is a major work of translation.Brilliant! This is a major work of translation.TheProfessorIsInhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05095829231695309427noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2274849647524601103.post-1942671158651533332014-08-30T20:37:19.162-05:002014-08-30T20:37:19.162-05:00Your second scenario might accord with the self-im...Your second scenario might accord with the self-image of the STEM folk (though remember that there are winners and losers in STEM nowadays, with power and money shifting from Physics to the Bio, Bio-chem and esp. Pharma fields). <br /><br />I do think that the money sloshing around to various constituencies in STEM cuts down some of the disagreement, and forces people to abandon long-held positions. But there are plenty of academic freedom issues related nowadays to things like climate science, energy etc, and politicians and lobbyists are happy to squeeze scientists the way they do everybody. But the biggest truth from scenario 2 is that the university as a single entity, The University as a single institution, reflects only a tiny fraction of everyone's working lives, whether they work in STEMland or the HumForest. On a daily basis, we live in smaller, disciplinary or subdisciplinary communities. <br /><br />So I suspect that at least part of the disciplinary split you're seeing is about the differing attitudes exhibited by the scientific and humanities fields towards permanent, unresolved disagreement. (Cf. Becher, Academic Tribes and Territories) Dave Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02685404465328283337noreply@blogger.com