Problems can emerge from their own momentum when an argument is followed wholeheartedly
Evidence
But I will argue later that the great continental themes and issues also resurface in The Gold Standard; and that the logic of Michaels’s argument drives him into rediscovering and reinventing them. This is indeed, in my opinion, the most extraordinary and admirable feature of this book that it exhibits a philosophical discovery process at work before our eyes, and that Michaels has given himself over so completely to the logic of his content and the inner dynamic of his objects that the great problems appear, as it were, under their own momentum, not summoned in from the outside on the strength of this or that current theoretical trend or slogan. Perhaps this may serve as the deeper moment of truth of the otherwise provocative program of “Against Theory”: that with the proper combination of alertness and receptivity, problems may be expected to pose themselves in ways that allow us to make a detour around the reifications of current theoretical discourse. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 422
Categorization
- QUESTION: Is this Jameson’s genuine methodological view or a diplomatic way of reading Michaels generously? Worth checking against how he treats other theorists in the book.
- XREF: connects to: Citational techniques can simultaneously be serious argument and deliberate play — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 783; Confrontation with contrary evidence can intensify rather than weaken firm belief. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 97
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Citational techniques can simultaneously be serious argument and deliberate play — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 783; Confrontation with contrary evidence can intensify rather than weaken firm belief. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 97