Breaking it down….
I just had a stray thought the other day.
When it comes to issues that I feel are scientifically (natural science in particular) tractable I’m a big fan of reductionism, breaking it down into its parts, examining it in detail, demystifying it. I tend to have a negative reaction when people talk about “holism.” On the other hand, I have an aversion of excessive deconstruction and analysis when it comes to softer disciplines. I don’t see the benefit in laboring over every single sentence in a piece of literature, examining, breaking it apart, reconstituting it, contextualizing it, and so forth. Isn’t art supposed to be about the gestalt?
Posted by razib at 03:22 PM
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