Re: Plagiarism, credit, and culture

[csjhs@eiu.edu (Jeanne H. Simpson)]

Stephen

Me? A revolutionary?  The idea ought to make both of us crack
up--administrators are seldom seen as revolutionaries, and my natural
inclinations don't look much like manning the barricades, either.

What I am suggesting, though, is a kind of revolution and at the same time
a most reactionary approach.  That is to return consciously to our
scholarly training and to remind ourselves that one of the fundamentals of
scholarship is to question our basic assumptions, to make sure that our
own biases and attitudes are being considered as part of the picture and
not regarded as invisible and irrelevant.  And to look at the whole
picture, not just one small part of it.

I am not such a cloud-chasing optimist as to imagine that we can get rid
of the idea of intellectual "property." There are, after all, frequently
dollars attached.  I do, however, think members of the academy tend to
cling to old traditions rather firmly, without examining them very
carefully. But our own ways and notions are as subject to scrutiny as the
habits of lichens or the culture of the Kwakiutl.  That's just
intellectual honesty.

I also think there is a moral imperative here, that our motives and
attitudes should always be examined.  And that's what I'm really asking
for. 

Jeanne Simpson
csjhs@eiu.edu