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All teaching? So which position am I taking when I teach students how to compute the determinant of a matrix? Of course I can imagine that, say, constitutional
by prof-dr-ir 3y ago
All teaching? So which position am I taking when I teach students how to compute the determinant of a matrix?
Of course I can imagine that, say, constitutional law might currently be a bit more difficult to teach. But I still do not see what concretely the Yale administration is called upon to stop doing.
- kelseyfrog 3y agoThank you! This is a really good example of assuming that topics as things in themselves have the essential characteristic of neutrality. Which is itself a position. The opposite of which is that things don't have an essential characteristic of neutrality.[1] Sorry, but there's no escape hatch in the hard sciences; there's only one level of indirection. For any topic, I can generate a frame[2] in which it takes a non-neutral position. That's why neutrality doesn't exist. 1. teach the controversy, both sides! (in jest) 2. See Frame Analysis, Erving Goffman
- itishappy 3y ago> So which position am I taking when I teach students how to compute the determinant of a matrix? You mean the wedge product? ;)
- lambertsimnel 3y ago> So which position am I taking when I teach students how to compute the determinant of a matrix? That how to compute the determinant of a matrix is not only worth knowing, but worth prioritising over other things. It's an eminently reasonable position, but there's an opportunity cost to learning about determinants.