An Introduction to Reality

3 Credits.

Do you get the feeling that reality ain’t what it used to be? Reality is one of those Big Concepts that we often think with yet seldom think about. Taking up the notion that reality is never a self-evident thing, this seminar explores a central paradox: reality is conceived as a given totality—an ‘everything’—nonetheless produced and maintained from a partial and situated practice of making. The course begins with historical examinations of reality-making and –undoing. We look critically at the role of scientific knowledge, technological development, and capitalist and socialist ideological regimes in consolidating a sense of reality. The course puts forth the case that anthropology is uniquely situated to grasp how systems of knowledge and collectively held feeling come into being and stabilize a social order, while also investigating the inherent contestability and fragility of those systems.