The first move cuts out certain practices from an undefined fabric, in such a way as to treat them as a separate population, forming a coherent whole but foreign to the place in which the theory is produced. (…) a part (which is observable because it is circumscribed) is supposed to represent the totality (itself undefinable) of practices.
de Certeau, p. 62
Tagged: de Certeau RSS
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ellenswart
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jwhiah
‘In my region, “the ordinary man” says
 that charlatans and magicians depend on knowledge (you can do it if you know the trick), whereas tightrope dancers depend on an art.’
Michel de Certeau quotes Kant p. 73 -
daneshvar
Through these two terms – the “discription” which depends on narrativity and the “perfection” that aims at a technical optimalization – the position of the “arts” is fixed, neighboring on but outside of the field of science.
Certeau, Michel de. The Arts of Theory -
lanabroekaert
“A problematics of lag or delay is introduced into the relation between science and the arts. A temporal handicap separates the various kinds of know-how from their gradual elucidation by epistemologically superior sciences.” p. 67
de Certeau -
thomasvangrol
Dancing on a tightrope requires that one maintain an equilibrium from one moment to the next by recreating it at every step by means of new adjustments; it requires one to maintain a balance that is never pemanently acquired; contant readjustments renews the balance while giving the impression of “keeping” it.
Michel de Certeau, 73 -
floork
Concerning them it occurs to no one to ask whether the is knowledge; it is assumed that there must be, but that it is known only by people other than its bearers. Like that of poets and painters, the know-how of daily practices is supposed to be known only by the interpreter who illuminates it in his discursive mirror though he does not possess it either. It thus belongs to no one.
De Certeau, p. 71 -
marleen
“The distinction no longer refers essentially to the traditional binominal set of “Theory”and “Practice”, specified by a further distinction between “speculation” aimed at deciphering the book of the cosmos and concrete ‘applications’; rather the distinction concerns two operations, one discursive (in and through language) and the other without discourse.” (p65) “This ‘cognitive operation’ is supposed not to be accompanied by that self-consciousness that would give mastery through reduplication or internal ‘reflection’. Between practice and theory it occupies a ‘third position’, no longer discurive but primitive. It is secluded, originary, like a ‘source’of something that will later differentiate and elucidate itself.”(p 70)
Michel de Certeau “The practice of everyday life” -
maartje
“The distinction is repeated within “art” itself, according to whether it is represented or practiced: “Every art has its speculative and its practical aspect: its speculation, which is merely the inoperative knowledge of the rules of the art; its practice, which is merely the habitual and nonreflective use of these same rules.” Art is thus a kind of knowledge that operates outside the enlightened discourse which it lacks. More importantly, this ‘know-how’ surpasses, in its complexity, enlightened science.” (66)
de Certeau, Michel. The Arts of Theory.