The ends of Media Theory
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.19132/1807-8583202049.305-318Keywords:
Abstraction. Big Data. Computation. Media Philosophy. Media Theory.Abstract
This article considers the role of theory in general, and of media theory specifically. By challenging the prospect of the ‘end of theory’ that has been resonating in debates about new media, I aim to show the continued relevance of theoretical enquiry. I will address how the act of theorising is often understood in terms of creating an abstract system—a system that involves a degree of distance from the reality that it is meant to describe. I will then expose a false conception pertaining to this distance; i.e. the view according to which, if to theorise is to abstract from observation, then to abstract is to disengage from facts. Contra this view, I will argue that abstraction is intrinsic to the world and to how we experience it.
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Copyright (c) 2020 M. Beatrice Fazi, Luiza Carolina dos Santos, Marcio Telles
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