Come Rain or Shine

Lui: So, Mr. Scholar-Critic, you say you’ve lost interest in the usual questions of your discipline? Bravo, I’m all for being undisciplined—but tell me then, what are the questions that fascinate you?

Moi: Oh, so many, I’ll never get through them all.

Lui: Then get rid of some! What a way to ruin the rest of your life.

Moi: OK, here’s one I should probably drop, since it’s quite beyond me: how should we take into account whatever biological basis there is for human behavior? Evolution didn’t make us so many blank slates for culture to write on. But when “nature” gets brought into matters that are social and cultural as well, the result is usually a mess, often a crude justification for not changing things that might well be changed. So the question is: how to acknowledge constraints without turning them into shackles?

Lui: Yes, I’d say your chances, as a humanities professor, of getting anywhere with that one are about zero. So what else?