Theory breaks deceptive appearances but cannot justify choices

Evidence

But I recognize quite clearly that I have reconstructed a Gramsci that is in touch with Marx’s questions but gives culture more seriousness and thinks there is an independent road to socialism. So my attitude to theory is that theory is absolutely essential, absolutely essential, because appearances are wrong, largely wrong. We need theory to break up appearances so that you can begin to understand how things work. What theory will never do is to tell you either what you ought to have done or act as a guarantee that the choices that you’ve made are right. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 985

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the specific nonreductionist, culture-centered Gramsci Hall reconstructs, plus theory’s role as the instrument that breaks open appearances — a core stance the field inherits.
• XREF: The claim that appearances are largely wrong is the epistemic premise underneath hegemony critique and ideology analysis in the Islamophobia field. — connects to: Decisions are made under irreducible uncertainty that evidence alone cannot resolve — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 490