ABSTRACT
What I’m struck by as I read these words is the extent to which people were speaking past one another. Of course, I wasn’t there, and it is probable that physical proximity—gestures and expressions—mitigated this to some extent. But each of the participants seemed intent on remaining within a circumscribed space, of enforcing a terminology or a set of canonical texts. In fact, it often seemed more like a collection of mini-lectures than a conversation. I mean that as a criticism not only of this particular exercise— which had its moments, since these are extremely smart people who have thought for years about these issues—but of the institutions in which the conversation is embedded.
