Todd Gitlin: Confessions of an Epistemological Skeptic
[Todd Gitlin is a professor of journalism and sociology and chair of the Ph. D. program in Communications at Columbia. His next book, The Chosen Peoples: America, Israel, and the Ordeals of Divine Election(written with Liel Leibovitz), will be out in September.]
I’m struck by how quickly some of my fellow Entanglers have brought up the mother of all epistemological quandaries: How can we, the not very well informed, know what is the case in a far-off land of which we know, well, not very much?...
These reflections are stirred to mind by a New York Times piece last Sunday, June 27, wherein the exceptional war correspondent Dexter Filkins broke the usual mold of unrepentant present-mindedness under the headline “Overture to Taliban Jolts Afghan Minorities.”...
Now, I do not pretend to know any more about Afghan ethnicities than Filkins reports. What I do know is that this report stands out. When he observes the scene, he brings history to bear. His Afghanis were not born yesterday, and neither was he. The patterns he discerns matter—more, I daresay, than the latest Pentagon theories. I do not know what Filkins thinks the U.S. ought to do about Afghanistan. I do know that his approach complicates any kneejerk sentiments about the stability of the country under President Karzai. And that reporters who know something of the country’s history and tell their readers about it are rare.....
Read entire article at The New Republic
I’m struck by how quickly some of my fellow Entanglers have brought up the mother of all epistemological quandaries: How can we, the not very well informed, know what is the case in a far-off land of which we know, well, not very much?...
These reflections are stirred to mind by a New York Times piece last Sunday, June 27, wherein the exceptional war correspondent Dexter Filkins broke the usual mold of unrepentant present-mindedness under the headline “Overture to Taliban Jolts Afghan Minorities.”...
Now, I do not pretend to know any more about Afghan ethnicities than Filkins reports. What I do know is that this report stands out. When he observes the scene, he brings history to bear. His Afghanis were not born yesterday, and neither was he. The patterns he discerns matter—more, I daresay, than the latest Pentagon theories. I do not know what Filkins thinks the U.S. ought to do about Afghanistan. I do know that his approach complicates any kneejerk sentiments about the stability of the country under President Karzai. And that reporters who know something of the country’s history and tell their readers about it are rare.....