Theoretical progress means gaining new problems, not resolving old ones

Evidence

What I meant by theoretical gains was that the next kind of work that you feel able to do is done in a profoundly different way because you’ve had to wrestle with a new set of what I call conundra. You move within a different set of positions and with a set of conceptual insights which have emerged through what I metaphorically called struggling with the angels. I don’t know if that new work has any built-in guarantee that it’s better than the work you did before, quite often it’s not. I’m trying to represent the movement of theory, not from theorist to theorist or problematic to problematic, but from problem to … I don’t want to say solution because as soon as you get something which resolves a particular theoretical problem, you have instantly to recognize what it doesn’t do. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 268

Categorization

• XREF: Hall’s theory of ‘gains’/conundra parallels Kuhn’s paradigm shifts and the reader’s struggle-based view of lifelong learning. — connects to: Intellectual change proceeds through uneven breaks rather than tradition or rupture — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 180; Critical work advances dialogically and never reaches stable theoretical ground.; Intellectual work must produce new knowledges rather than recirculate known conclusions (+5 more)
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 268

Broader Connections

• Critical work advances dialogically and never reaches stable theoretical ground. #corroborates (0.70)
• Intellectual change proceeds through uneven breaks rather than tradition or rupture #corroborates (0.65) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 180
• Social movements and historical conjunctures generate theoretical moments rather than merely consuming them #corroborates (0.60) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 251
• Intellectual work must produce new knowledges rather than recirculate known conclusions #corroborates (0.55)