Circular theory that only restates known conclusions produces no genuine knowledge

Evidence

I think it is different when you genuinely feel the pressure on our language, to show its workings, to open itself to accessibility, to open a window, not to disable, not to close out, etc. But this cannot be done at the expense of serious thinking, because the last thing that we want is a rousing populist work that doesn’t tell us anything. My main problem with a great deal of work in Cultural Studies is that it didn’t tell us anything new. It was a circular exercise and the wonderful thing was that you could arrive back at the beginning by a very long and intellectually rewarding route: The bourgeoisie produces bourgeois culture which exercises bourgeois hegemony. Hooray! That is the last thing that anybody out there needs: to be told what they already know. They need the production of new knowledges. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 266

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: critique of theory as intellectual comfort, where elaborate argumentation ‘arrives back at the beginning’ — applies directly to academic and algorithmic echo chambers.
• CANDY: The mock-deadpan ‘The bourgeoisie produces bourgeois culture which exercises bourgeois hegemony. Hooray!’ is a sharp, quotable jab at circular cultural-studies reasoning.
• XREF: connects to: Reflection cannot be modeled as knowledge of knowledge without regress; Formalized reason renders theory incomprehensible and thought meaningful only without meaning.; Good theory explains data but cannot remain at data’s level — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2456 (+1 more)