Page 41 - Studio International - April 1972

empirical sociology. then where can any competing theories come `Contradiction' is methodologically
The criticism of the autonomy thesis implies from ? Are they merely spirited up on totally incommensurable with the typical 'Paradigm
Theory'. In one way or another it presupposes a
that it is difficult to find rational grounds upon arbitrary grounds ? Perhaps one ought to metaphysical homogeneity as is exemplified in
which to assert that art should be a remember Max Planck's remark that old dialectical contexts.
mono-theoretical activity. Nevertheless there theories die out as their defenders die out. It is 2... As a convention, not a prohibition.
3 There are perhaps some circumstances in which it
may be a case for defence of dogma. Criticism important to see that Feyerabend's principle is can be given a 'good sense' : we would want to avoid
of essentialism may be justified, but an as useful to a subscriber to an emerging theory the psychoanalytic weight of 'critique of ideology'.
autonomous critical method is to be avoided. as it is to a subscriber to a well entrenched We can look for a 'fit'. Systematic behaviour variation
in response to identical liguistic stimuli can't just
However the usual critical method (and theory. What the critique of the autonomy be attributed to linguistic events.
aim) amounts to scarcely more than the study thesis may contribute toward is the guarding 4 D. Kaplan quoted (or mentioned) by Noam
of an inventory of elements and is occasioned, against the tyranny of unexamined systems. Chomsky in a review of a book by B. F. Skinner.
T. S. Kuhn. The Structure of Scientific
perhaps, by the unclarities of forms A multiplicity of theories changes the style Revolutions. University of Chicago 1962.
traditionally associated with understanding. of argument, and refutations are impossible 6 Another epithet would be 'an attempt at pragmatic
The uncritical attachment that a lot of without a choice of alternatives. Alternatives relativination : and this can be problematically
encapsulated (against the permissions of the epithet)
critics-as-historians have to Saussurian seem to have a magnifying effect upon anomalies, as 'largely a reliance on non-conceptual
linguistics is associated with the messy critical the magnification may eventually aggravate the environmentally-enforced mode(s) of individuation.
situation in art. It may well be that there is no situation to the point of what has earlier been At best, the system can be ergodic, but the
probabilities would below—i.e., a sequence in which
de facto theory which can make a distinction called 'crisis'. At this point the over-sensitized the occurrence of 'significant syntax' is controlled
between the kind of conditions that leave the awareness of the entrenched theory(ies) (weakly) by probability, but no appreciable influence
between these sequential items extends over more
context 'unmarked' (as in forming new emerges, not (to presuppose the point of some than a number them whose 'top value' is finite. In an
sentences, or other syntactically and/or later remarks) a paradigm-shift, in terms of a ergodic sequence the relations between certain
otherwise significant stuff, and understanding shift from one paradigm to another paradigm, constituent elements separated by more than this top
`new work' on the basis of a finite vocabulary, but simply a shift from a paradigm. One may value may be thought of as purely random : influence
fall-off could perhaps be expressed exponentially.
and finitely stated rules—everyone grown-up call this act the paradigm-shift-from, and the P. Feyerabend 'Consolations for the Specialist' in
enough can do this) and changes the in or off shift from one paradigm to another paradigm Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Edited by
set of constitutive bases—i.e. analogic changes. the paradigm-shift-to. This is problematic if Lakatos and Musgrave. Cambridge University Press
1970.
The transformational-ideological model is one is prepared to hold that a paradigm can be
adequate to making that sort of distinction. defined as follows : that a great majority of a
Taxonomic (restricted ontological) given community practice their trade according
behaviourism is no use for making that sort to a common rule. Paradigms may then be
of distinction. overthrown because of the way in which
Now there are some terms in the preceding alternatives have enlarged existing anomalies,
remarks which stand in need of considerable but the question remains as to what one is to
expansion and clarification. It remains to be call 'overthrown' here. Can a paradigm be
seen how far such needs can be met, but it overthrown in the sense that a discipline may
remains that they are required. Two terms, have no substantial majority of its
perhaps best concentrated in the form of two practitioners subscribing to one particular
questions, one resting upon the other, rule ? That is, the discipline will have no
especially warrant further remarks; (i) how is paradigms, no well-entrenched theory, no
the notion of 'paradigm' being used ? (ii) what dominating rule(s). Such a discipline may then
then is a paradigm-shift ? have trouble identifying its limits, that is,
The account given of developments in exactly what it is. In a situation such as this one
modern art does in fact suggest a kind of must not look, perhaps, for a competing
outright breach of continuity, in that it posits paradigm to one that has been previously been
the existence of discontinuities far more severe well-entrenched to emerge too quickly. In such
than they have in fact been heretofore. a volatile situation a principle of tenacity may
(Duchamp, Dada, Surrealism, Futurism, are well be a significant factor. Then the present
cases in point.) The reistic commitments of, complex and expanded situation in art may well
for example, the Futurists remained totally be more 'irrational' than subscribers to the
ideologically congruent with those of Renoir. E/MC/POP are prepared to admit insofar as a
Another point is that the seeking after either `rational' monotheoretical discipline may be
continuities or discontinuities can itself become retained as verbal wall-papering, as a memorial
autonomous if it is placed on a higher priority to a neater time when the business of art could
than actually looking very carefully at the de be run by following a few simple 'rational'
facto situation. The 'paradigm' construct in rules. The complex and shuddering business
Kuhn's thesis turns upon the 'observation' that has emerged throughout the forties,
(i.e. whether or not it is the case that) of fifties, and sixties may require a few decades
continuities and discontinuities. more to become stabilized, that is if the
In one of his contributions to the philosophy shuddering has not itself become autonomous.
of science dialogue Paul Feyerabend7 holds a The coherency and consistency rules may
principle of tenacity which recommends themselves be subject to shift. The suggestion
sticking to a given theory even when the actual here is that in terms of any continuity between
difficulties it encounters are considerable. This some post-war American work and parts of the
is primarily a methodological problem, not a Art-Language programme-map the term
problem of how a discipline actually proceeds. `paradigm-shiff describes only the action of
But in specific contexts, if art is as monolithic shifting from a paradigm. One is engaged in a
as the autonomy thesis apparently upholds, kind of theory-trying. q
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