Knowledge grows by selective rearrangement within a research consensus, not accumulation

Evidence

The growth of knowledge, particularly specialized knowledge, is a very slow process. Far from being merely additive or cumulative, the growth of knowledge is a process of selective accumulation, displacement, deletion, rearrangement, and insistence within what has been called a research consensus. The legitimacy of such knowledge as Orientalism was during the nineteenth century stemmed not from religious authority, as had been the case before the Enlightenment, but from what we can call the restorative citation of antecedent authority. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 448

Categorization

• XREF: This anticipates Kuhn’s paradigm/accumulation critique and anticipates Foucault’s discourse/archive; it is the mechanism beneath Said’s whole thesis and connects forward to how ‘common sense’ in Gramscian terms gets produced and sanctioned. — connects to: Knowledge acquisition is an active creative process, not mechanical reception; A scholarly field’s cumulative corporate identity overrides individual genius; Intellectual work must produce new knowledges rather than recirculate known conclusions (+5 more)
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 448

Broader Connections

• A scholarly field’s cumulative corporate identity overrides individual genius #corroborates (0.80)
• Knowledge acquisition is an active creative process, not mechanical reception #corroborates (0.75)
• Intellectual work must produce new knowledges rather than recirculate known conclusions #expands (0.72)