She noted that it is not a new idea, and numerous variants have been presented in many contexts.
He also listed some of the names for the problem of reflexivity: “the abyss, the spectre, the infinite regress paradox, aporia, antinomy.” These evoke the numinous.īarbara Babcock, the preeminent theorist of the trickster, has written a number of papers dealing with reflexivity in fact it was the topic of her doctoral dissertation. Bruno Latour warns that “Given the pressure of a scientific career, reflexivity is equivalent to suicide.” Hugh Mehan and Houston Wood note that: “The reflexivity of reflexivity lies behind Garfinkel’s … statement that … Ethnomethodology is only ‘for whoever has the nervous system to withstand it … for whoever can take it’.” Sociologists have recognized reflexivity to be dangerous, a way to make trouble, something to be avoided, and Malcolm Ashmore’s book The Reflexive Thesis (1989) contains a substantial listing of quotes supporting this point. Sociologists have offered some of the most intriguing comments. When restricted to mathematical logic or literary theory, the feelings are typically muted, but when consideration moves to concrete matters, researchers often encounter manifestations that are more ominous and then turn away. Reflexivity is the turning of some function or process back upon itself, as in using awareness to learn about awareness or using logic to study logic.Īt first glance, reflexivity appears innocuous, but as it is pondered, scholars often become vaguely apprehensive. Being reflexive is a further step-one is aware of one’s awareness. Reflection is a slightly different idea when one is reflective, one is aware of oneself. This paradox confuses subject and object it explodes that distinction. On the surface, this seems trivial or even silly, but the consequences are profound. One of the best known is: “This statement is false” (Epimenides’ paradox) the sentence refers to itself, and, if it is false, then it’s true. Self-reference is the source of a number of paradoxes. Though some of these terms are often used interchangeably, it can be helpful to make distinctions. The ideas of reflexivity, mirroring, reflection, self-reference, and projection are interrelated. Mathematical logic, literary theory, ethnomethodology, meditation, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and postmodernism carry examples of reflexivity, and they show some surprising commonalities. Common patterns can be seen in diverse areas when one understands properties of reflexive operations. The concept is not difficult, but it often seems so, and because of that, few have recognized its generality. Reflexivity is one of the most abstract concepts presented in this book, and it is a frequent source of paradox and confusion. The result and the sense of the fraud is … not that it simulates, but that it masks, the genuine phenomena.
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