“There are two ways of forming an opinion. One is the scientific method; the other, the scholastic. To the scientific mind, experimental proof is all-important, and theory is merely a convenience in description, to be junked when it no longer fits. To the academic mind, authority is everything, and facts are junked when they do not fit theory.” WayMindTwoImportantFactsOpinionTheoryFitAuthorityMethodProofDescriptionAcademicConvenienceTwo WaysScientific MethodScholastics Author:Robert A. Heinlein
“At that time, the academic orientation was rather technical contrary to that of the university, where art theory is very important. The teachers were renowned artists and among the best of that time.” ArtImportantArtistTeacherTheoryUniversityContraryAcademicOrientationBest TeacherRenowned Author:Ralph Allen
“I was instructed long ago by a wise editor, "If you understand something you can explain it so that almost anyone can understand it. If you don't, you won't be able to understand your own explanation." That is why 90% of academic film theory is bullshit. Jargon is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” IfsLongAbleLastsFilmWiseTheoryExplanationEditorsAcademicLong AgoRefugeBullshitScoundrelsJargon Book:Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2010 Source: Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2010
“Film theory has nothing to do with film. Students presumably hope to find out something about film, and all they will find out is an occult and arcane language designed only for the purpose of excluding those who have not mastered it and giving academic rewards to those who have. No one with any literacy, taste or intelligence would want to teach these courses, so the bona fide definition of people teaching them are people who are incapable of teaching anything else.” PeopleWantGivingFilmPurposeCoursesLanguageTeachTeachingStudentsTheoryTasteRewardsDefinitionsAcademicIncapableLiteracyOccultArcaneFilm Students Author:Roger Ebert
“I do not know whether to be delighted or outraged by the fact that Literary Theory: An Introduction was the subject of a study by a well known U.S. business school, which was intrigued to discover how an academic text could become a best-seller.” KnowsWellsFactsSchoolKnownStudySubjectsTheoryAcademicWell KnownIntroductionDelightedIntriguedSellersOutragedBest SellersBusiness SchoolLiterary Theory Book:Literary Theory: An Introduction Source: Literary Theory: An Introduction
“The obstacles facing academic economists are formidable, for tenure and professional advancement still depend to a large extent on a willingness to comply with and to work within the tenets of orthodox theory.” StillsTheoryDependsObstaclesOrthodoxWillingnessAcademicEconomistAdvancementFormidableTenure Author:Paul Ormerod
“Homicide is the major leagues, the center ring, the show. It always has been ... It goes beyond academic degrees, specialized training or book learning, because all the theory in the world means nothing if you can't read the street.” IfsWorldMeanHas BeensBookShowsStreetsTheoryDegreesMajorsTrainingRingsLeagueAcademicMajor LeagueHomicideBook Learning Author:David Simon
“Because my graduate academic training at law school was not one that included most of the intellectual traditions I find useful for understanding the conditions and problems that most concern me - anti-colonial theories, Foucault, critical disability studies, prison studies and the like are rarely seen in standard US Law School curricula, where students are still fighting on many campuses to get a single class on race or poverty offered - I developed most of my thinking about these topics through activist reading groups and collaborative writing projects with other activist scholars.” ThinkingWritingStillsProblemSchoolLawFightingReadingUnderstandingRaceClassPovertyStudyGroupsConditionsStudentsTheoryProjectsIntellectualTrainingStandardsConcernTraditionPrisonCriticalActivistDisabilityGraduatesAcademicScholarTopicsCampusLaw SchoolFighting On Author:Dean Spade
“I am often talking about the ideas collected in Normal Life in contexts that are not academic, or that are full of people who are not primarily engaging as theorists or theory-readers. Being able to make ideas visual, especially critical ideas about movements that can be difficult to hear because of attachments we have to certain national narratives, or because of ways that we see ourselves, is especially useful.” PeopleWayIdeasAbleCertainDifficultTalkingMovementTheoryReaderNormalCriticalNarrativeVisualsAttachmentAcademicEngagingNormal LifeTheorists Author:Dean Spade
“One absolutely crucial change is that feminist film theory is today an academic subject to be studied and taught. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" was a political intervention, primarily influenced by the Women's Liberation Movement and, in my specific case, a Women's Liberation study group, in which we read Freud and realised the usefulness of psychoanalytic theory for a feminist project.” TodayFilmPoliticalPleasureCasesStudyGroupsSubjectsMovementTaughtTheoryProjectsFeministLiberationNarrativeCinemaVisualsCrucialAcademicInterventionRealisedUsefulnessPsychoanalyticStudy Group Author:Laura Mulvey
“[In my writing] I know that I have made a caricature out of [others' academic] theories [but] I think that caricatures are frequently good portraits.” ThinkingKnowsWritingMadeTheoryAcademicPortraitsCaricatures Author:Umberto Eco
“Berkshire's whole record has been achieved without paying one ounce of attention to the efficient market theory in its hard form. And not one ounce of attention to the descendants of that idea, which came out of academic economics and went into corporate finance and morphed into such obscenities as the capital asset pricing model, which we also paid no attention to. I think you'd have to believe in the tooth fairy to believe that you could easily outperform the market by seven-percentage points per annum just by investing in high volatility stocks.” ThinkingBelieveHas BeensIdeasHardWholeFormAttentionRecordsTheoryModelsEconomicsPaidSevenInvestingTeethFinanceCorporateFairyAssetsAcademicEfficientPercentagesDescendantsObscenityPricingVolatilityTooth FairyEfficient Markets Author:Charlie Munger
“I have concluded that most PhD economists under appraise the power of the common-stock-based "wealth effect," under current extreme conditions... "Wealth effects" involve mathematical puzzles that are not nearly so well worked out as physics theories and never can be... What has happened in Japan over roughly the last ten years has shaken up academic economics, as it obviously should, creating strong worries about recession from "wealth effects" in reverse.” ShouldWellsStrongWealthCommonWorryHappenedConditionsEffectsTheoryCreatingEconomicsCurrentsExtremesPhysicsMathematicalAcademicReversePuzzlesEconomistRecessionsPhdsAppraise Author:Charlie Munger
“There is too much ideological conformity in gender studies. The true-believers fashion the theories, write the textbooks and teach the students. When journalists, policymakers, and legislators address topics such as the wage gap, gender and education, or women's health, they turn to these experts for enlightenment. For the most part, they peddle misinformation, victim politics, and sophistry. They claim that their teachings represent the academic consensus, but that is only because they have excluded all dissenters.” WritingTurnsTeachStudyToo MuchTeachingFashionStudentsTheoryEnlightenmentClaimsVictimGenderBelieverJournalistExpertsAddressesGapsConformityAcademicTopicsConsensusIdeologicalTextbooksLegislatorsExcludedMisinformationTrue BelieverSophistryWomen's Health Author:Christina Hoff Sommers